658 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Nov. 22 , I 9 I 3 . 
Ishi The Archer 
By EDWARD B. WESTON 
A SHORT time ago I received the following 
very interesting letter from Dr. Saxton 
T. Pope, of San Francisco, California: 
“It is quite true that just this summer, after 
returning from a camping trip, where I made 
bows and arrows for the children, as 1 used to 
make them years ago in Texas, among the In¬ 
dians, my love for archery blossomed again. 
So I have waded through Spalding’s goods, 
to escape, at Oroville, Tehema County, about two 
years ago. 
No one could speak his language. He had 
never come in contact with white people since 
the massacre, and feared them very much. In 
fact, he fully expected to be killed when cap¬ 
tured. 
He was acquired by the University, and now 
is a janitor in the Museum, where he adds to 
string is twisted deer sinew. One end is twisted 
about the nock, and the other looped, which he 
slips off entirely. 
He holds the bow almost crosswise, with 
the arm below, and draws to his left clavicle, 
which gives him about a 26-inch draw. His 
arrows, however, are much longer than this, and 
run from 32 inches to 38 or 40. 
Apparently, he aims with left eye, both being 
open, and shoots quite accurately up to 40 yards. 
From ten to thirty yards seems to be his killing 
distance for large game. 
Of course, he stalks and uses the ambush to 
achieve his ends. Past 40 yards his bow hand 
obscures his aim: he can’t get much elevation, 
but must shoot point blank. 
This is a favorite pose; he invariably 
squints down his arrow and straightens it 
a bit before a careful shot. 
While he carries a few arrows under 
his arm. He tells me that when hunting 
they carry a wild-cat skin full of shafts. 
“Too many”! indicating by his hands 
a bundle 8 or 6 inches across. 
Ishi is fat now. When captured he 
was skin and bones. 
This is only one of Ishi’s bows. He 
has several and all are longer and stronger. 
Yew, Ash, Hickory, Eucalyptus, 
Cyprus have been tried. 
None suit him. He wants Red Cedar. 
Ash and Hickory are fairly good. He 
hates Yew. 
DR. SAXTON T. POPE 
San Francisco 
Calif. 
and Maxson’s pamphlet, Ford's book, and into 
practice with a Barnes’ bow; and am now on the 
high road to becoming a fine, enthusiastic novice, 
just in the throes of developing technique and 
learning to aim. 
When I returned I picked up a companionship 
with Ishi, the California native, who is attached 
to the Anthropologic Museum, next door to our 
school. I am an instructor in surgery and re¬ 
search at the University of California. 
Naturally I am very much interested in the 
archery of Ishi. He is the last of an extinct 
tribe, the Yana, a band of fighting Indians in the 
north of California. 
They were so bad that fifty years ago they 
were almost entirely exterminated by the whites. 
Only a few escaped. 
Ishi now is the surviving member, so far as 
he knows. He was captured, sick and too weak 
the exhibit, and is slowly learning our ways and 
language. We have his vocabulary, and can talk 
with him quite well, by the addition of signs. 
His archery therefore is unique and un¬ 
spoiled Indian in type. He makes his bows of 
a red, sweet smelling wood, so he says, which 
seems to us to be cedar. We have never seen 
the wood he describes. We gave him some yew 
obtained from Barnes, who lives near by his 
country, but Ishi did not seem to recognize the 
wood. 
The bows he makes are less than four feet 
long, flat and backed with sinew. So far he has 
used mostly hickory, but he scorns the wood and 
says it is fit only for women. The yew bow 
he promptly broke because he expected too much 
of it, and the length was only three and a half 
feet. 
His present bow pulls about 40 pounds. The 
His present bow carries about 150 yards, but 
he is not accurated after 40. He tells always of 
the wonderful bows he used to have that could 
shoot the arrow out of sight, and longs to go 
back to his mountains to get the wood. Possibly 
next year I will take him there, and we can hunt 
together. We went deer hunting this season, but 
were too late and too hurried to get anything. 
If we do get game I will write you all about it. 
He says he has shot clear through deer and elk. 
He has also killed bear. Now he occasionally 
shoots quail and rabbits with his present outfit. 
His arrows are made either of hazel shoots 
or a native reed-like bamboo. These latter have 
a pile six inches long inserted in the end, made of 
hazel. 
For small game he used a blunt shaft, bound 
at the tip with sinew. He makes obsidian points 
