SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 297 



notch ; but as soon as the trigger-pin is removed the separated portions 

 fly together, the pin rises, lifts the string, and the arrow is discharged. 

 The Chinese have a somewhat similar method. The arrows of the Fan 

 cross-bow are small and light, and about a foot in length. Their range 

 is about 20 yards, and they owe their efficiency to their poisoned tins. 

 When laid in the groove of the shaft to be discharged, the arrow is 

 slightly held by a piece of wax. A larger arrow with an iron head is 

 used in hunting. 



The Japanese have also a cross-bow. The repeating Chinese cross-bow- 

 is perhaps the greatest advance in this implement, which has been so en- 

 tirely superseded in Europe. The magazine is above a movable block 

 which has a slot in which the string moves, and the whole block is mov- 

 able back and forth in the main stock by a lever attached to the latter 

 and shackled to the block. As the lever is raised the block slides for- 

 ward until the string of the unbent bow drops into a notch. This al- 

 lows an arrow to fall out of the magazine into the slot. Xow draw back 

 the lever; this action draws upon the bow-string and bends the bow in 

 the first place, and when the lever is depressed to its fullest extent a 

 pin in the block comes against the stock and is pushed up so as to lift 

 the string out of the notch and discharge the arrow. The limit of speed 

 in firing is the quickness with which the lever is lifted aud depressed. 

 The bow is made of three thicknesses of the male bamboo, overlapping 

 like the plates of an elliptic carriage spring. The string is a thick 

 twisted gut. The arrows are straight, both with heavy steel heads and 

 very slight spiral feathers. Its utmost range is possibly 200 yards. 



