438 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



I 



THE IMPLEMENTS OF ARCHERY 



Wood occupies the highest place as the material of which bows and arrows are made. The arrows 

 may be of any wood that is straight enough, but the wood for the bow must be very strong and 

 elastic. Among the best are yew, lancewood, hickory, ash and osage orange. Yew is the highest 

 priced native bow wood. 



SO that the tinished bow will display red heart on one 

 side, and white sap on the other. No appreciable differ- 

 erence can be no- 

 ticed in the resiliency 

 in the heart and sap 

 of yew, when it has 

 been properly sea- 

 soned and prepared. 

 The bow and ar- 

 row were once the 

 chief weapons of 

 war and hunting. 

 Now they are little 

 used except for 

 sport. Within the 

 past two or three 



TWO STYLES OF THONGED SNOW SHOES 



The Ion 



snow. The other is the "bear paw 

 rough country, steep mountains, 

 plateaus and in the far Northwest 



arows as for bows, for a 

 bow was good for years, 

 but arrows were soon lost. 

 An Indian hunter some- 

 times carried as many as 

 sixty arrows. Some bows 

 were as long as a man, 

 others less than a yard in 

 length. Sizes are fewer 

 now, and the amateur arch- 

 er learns to use what the 

 manufacturer sells him. 

 Many bows are still in use 

 by Indian children. They 

 become expert in killing 

 squirrels or in transfixing 

 woodpeckers. The skill of 

 some of these children sur- 

 passes that of the average 

 archery club member, 

 though the latter may shoot 

 with a bow that costs fifty 

 dollars, and the Indian 

 youngster's bow could be 

 bought for fifty cents. 



Appliances for games 

 and sports connected with 

 snow and ice are used in 

 large numbers in the northern country. Snow shoes and 

 skis are familiar sights where winters are cold and snow 

 is abundant. These are worn on the feet and differ in 

 pattern and appearance, but both are employed in walk- 

 ing on the snow for both pleasure and business. They 



have a place in a 

 number of games. 

 The skis are thin, 

 narrow boards, 

 curved upward in 

 front, usually from 

 five to eight feet 

 long. The snow 

 shoe, as the term is 

 usually understood, 

 is shorter and broad- 



ig model in the illustration is the one in general use and is good on all kinds of 



The other is the "bear paw" model and is more nearly round. It is suitable for 



and heavy snow. It is popular on the high western 



generations, hunters made use of the bow occasionally in er, and instead of being all wood, it generally consists 

 the western country. A mounted Indian or white man of a wooden rim or hoop, cross-strung with thongs of 



with bow and arrows sometimes could kill more 



buffaloes than a man could kill with a rifle. At 

 close range the arrow was as deadly as the bullet, 

 it made less noise, and arrows could be discharged 

 three or four times as rapidly as bullets from 

 muzzle-loading guns. 



The early English archers were rated the best of 

 their time, and most of their bows were of yew. 

 American Indians who were excellent archers, made 

 bows of various woods, ash in Virginia, locust in 

 Carolina, cottonwood in New Mexico, Osage orange 

 in Texas and Kansas, and hornbeam and hickory 

 in nearly all parts of the eastern half of the United 

 States. Ten times as much wood was required for 



TOBOGGAN AND SKIS FOR SNOW SPORT 



Some of the exhilarating snow sports owe much of their success to the 

 wood of which the eauipment is made. Such sports are known only in 

 regions which have cold winters and deep snows. Strong, stiff and elastic 

 woods are demanded, and hickory, ash, elm, spruce, and maple predominate 

 in the manufacture of these articles. 



{Continued on Page 444.) 



