796 
day. For the present you are quite content to 
lie on the bank above the Athabasca and listen 
to its ripplings. 
Someone is organizing an exploration party. 
You can hear him out among the roses, jabber¬ 
ing with a guide. “Down the river on a big 
scow, land at an encampment, spend the night 
there, perhaps, and return the next day.” No, 
it is not for you. Not yet. There is plenty of 
time. You will just lie there, above the river, 
and try to solve the mystery of the great tower¬ 
ing masses of rock 'before you. To-morrow you 
may go to gather orchids in the foothills. All 
afternoon you stay there, watching the purple 
change into orange, the orange to crimson, ac¬ 
cording to the whims of the sun. 
It is evening. Smoke comes out of the several 
chimneys across the tracks. The evenings are 
cool in Jasper. Slowly, silently, the dark fails 
about the foothills, and the birds sing the sun 
to rest. All the mountain range is transformed. 
Brilliant purples fade into azure, and bright or¬ 
ange shades become brick red. A streak of cerise 
appears in the sky. It is as if the great god of 
harmony were blending all the colors of the 
universe on one palette. 
If you use your fieldglass, you may catch a 
glimpse of spiral smoke, slowly ascending from 
a secluded spot in the foothills. It seems but a 
A PILE which is a section of a true cylinder 
is not good; it opens a hole in the target 
full size of the shaft and permits the arrow 
the full size of the shaft and permits the arrow 
to pass entirely through the target, especially if 
the target be an old one. The pile should be 1-32 
of an inch less in diameter at the front end than 
at the back. This result is secured by swedging, 
which may be done without heating the tube. 
The swedge is made by boring a hole of the re¬ 
quired size in a block of steel or brass, then 
reaming it with a tapered reamer. The mandril 
is hardened steel of the size and shape which sug¬ 
gests itself from requirements. Small conical 
shaped points are turned from steel (cold-rolled 
shafting works fine); a shoulder is turned on the 
end of the cap so that it sets into the shell 1-32 
of an inch and shoulders up against the end of 
the shell. 
The cap and the shell are then soldered to¬ 
gether. Brazing is better, but unnecessary. In 
soldering, abandon the different acid solutions. 
Use any good soldering paste that may be se¬ 
cured from electrical supply dealers. The caps 
and the shells must be carefully tinned before 
attempting to solder. The pile is fitted to the 
end of the shaft according to the tools and con¬ 
veniences at hand. The best way is with the 
assistance of a hollow spindle lathe, but great 
care should be taken to see that the pile is per¬ 
fectly “stopped”; that is, the end of the shaft 
should come in contact with the cap of the pile 
and the shoulder of the shaft should meet the 
end of the shell, when the pile is driven home. 
The pile can be retained in position by glue ap¬ 
plied to the shaft, care being taken to not use too 
FOREST AND STREAM 
stone’s toss to the big jack pines which form 
the guard to the mountains. But try to walk 
there, and see how long it will take you. Per¬ 
haps the smoke comes from an Indian encamp¬ 
ment; perhaps a party of mountain climbers have 
decided on their night’s halting place. The mys¬ 
tery of night is upon the place. 
It is the hour when the squaw mother of the 
foothills creeps silently outside the tent, with 
her babe in her arms, to listen to the evening 
voices. The orchids and the wild honeysuckle 
whisper secrets to her, the tall pines and spruce 
which wave back and forth in the monotony of 
listlessness sigh, now and then, and the mother 
understands. Away up on one of their branches 
a night bird shrieks its warning. From a nearby 
nest, a small one answers, and goes on rocking 
in its tiny crib. The voices of the construction 
gang come across the greyness, in a subdued 
monotone. 
The Indian mother croons a night song to her 
babe. If she catches the note of the wind or 
the whispering treetops, she is glad. For she 
knows that the great God of all the Indians has 
set a singing bird in her heart—a singing bird, 
which will always croon words of love and wis¬ 
dom to her babe. 
The legends of the Indians? The place 
breathes of them. Small wonder the camp doc¬ 
tor could speak of nothing else. 
much, otherwise the pile cannot be driven to its 
proper place. If it becomes necessary to remove 
the pile, apply a flame for a short period. The 
gas formed by the heated glue will cause the pile 
•to detach itself. 
The shaft is again placed in the grooved board 
and the point of union between the footing and 
the pile is dressed with a mill-cut file, after which 
the point of the pile is dressed on the emery 
wheel. 
At this point I wish to suggest that a tool of 
great convenience and utility can be easily made 
in the form of a wooden device carrying a han¬ 
dle like a plane, which will clamp flat files in 
such position as they may be used in the same 
manner as a plane. 
After all the shafts have been brought to the 
condition now referred to they are weighed upon 
a jeweler’s balance until the lightest is discov¬ 
ered. That one should be then worked down to 
the desired weight and placed in the scales and 
all other shafts brought to equal weight. This 
process of reduction and weighing out is as 
tedious as it is important, and may be performed 
with files, steelwool and varying grades of sand¬ 
paper. The acme of finish may be secured by 
the use of glasspaper, which can be obtained from 
dealers in musical instruments and violin mak¬ 
ers’ supplies. The glasspaper leaves a finish that 
cannot be approached by the use of abrasive 
agents such as sand or emery paper, or steel- 
wool. 
Immediately after being brought to weight, and 
before they have had opportunity to accumulate 
moisture, the shafts should be varnished from 
the pile to a point within four and one-half 
inches of the extreme nock end. The alcohol 
varnishes, such as shellac, are taboo and should 
be avoided. They are worse than useless. Spar 
varnish, any of the varnishes used on bamboo 
fishing rods, or a good grade of rubbing varnish, 
which may be secured from any first-class car¬ 
riage painter, may be used, but the best is what 
is known under the trade name of “chi-namel,” 
made by the Ohio Varnish Company. The first 
coat should be thinned with turpentine. 
The varnish used must fulfill many require¬ 
ments. It must cling to a highly polished sur¬ 
face, must not crack under changing weather 
conditions, must respond to treatment with steel- 
wool and other abrasives without gumming or 
balling, and at the same time must set with suffi¬ 
cient hardness to prevent becoming soft under 
the influence of frictional heat as the arrow 
passes into the target. 
After receiving the initial coat of thin varnish 
the shafts are kept in a dry place for twenty-four 
hours, when they again go through the weighing 
out process, in which they are again rubbed down 
with the finest grade of steelwool. No sand¬ 
paper should be used; the dust will fill depres¬ 
sions and appear under the succeeding coats of 
varnish. That portion of the shaft which has not 
been varnished, and which is called the “shaft- 
ment,” is then sized with extremely thin glue and 
permitted to dry for six hours. The application 
of the thin glue will raise the grain, which must 
be removed by a very light application of the 
fine steelwool. 
In applying the size, care should be taken not 
to cover any of the varnished portion of the 
shaft. If this occurs the succeeding coats of 
varnish will flake off. The purpose of the size 
will be very apparent when the operation of 
feathering the shaft is attempted. Without it 
the bare wood of the shaft will rob the feather 
of its glue, and in addition to this the glue of the 
feather will not take hold of the bare wood in¬ 
stantly as it will if the size is used. 
The fledging or feathering of an arrow, re¬ 
quiring as it does the securing, selecting, cutting 
and. attaching of the feather, constitutes the most 
difficult part of arrow making, and, as frequently 
remarked by my good friend Challiss, is not a 
matter of skill, but an art. 
Pre-eminent among feathers for a target arrow 
are those of the peacock, but they are almost im¬ 
possible to secure. Next comes that of the do¬ 
mestic turkey. While the white turkey feather 
will not stand as much abuse as the gray, I pre¬ 
fer it because of its greater beauty and the fact 
that it can be dyed to any desired color. In at¬ 
tempting to dye feathers great care should be 
taken. If the solution is not hot enough the dye 
will not strike in. If it is too hot it will ruin 
the feather. I might say that I ruin two out of 
every three feathers I attempt to dye. Any com¬ 
mercial dye may be used. 
What are known on the market as primary 
feathers, or “pointers,” are selected, care being 
taken not to select the feathers from opposite 
wings of the bird. They should also be selected 
with reference to their size and texture, and if 
the stock on hand will permit, the portion used 
for fledging should come from the same part of 
ths feather; that is, the 'three vanes used on an 
arrow should be taken from three separate feath¬ 
ers, but from the same location, for the reason 
that a primary feather is coarser and stiffer near 
(Continued on page 813). 
Notes on Arrow Making 
By Z. E. Jackson. 
(Continued from January 3.) 
Loss of manuscript compelled long delay in finishing this article. 
