Nov, 23, 1907.] ee 
FOREST AND STREAM. 











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i acme . Sees z. Ss ee atte | 
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} Ancient Human Bones Penetrated by Spear Heads. Found in a Kentucky Cavern. 
i 
yf the point, propelled by the immense force of or of antler were more for show than for use. forms of arrows; using in their hunting of 
he bow, readily pierced the tough hide of any They were good to look at, and for a time were little birds arrows without heads, and having 
yinimal, where the rougher stone point would effective, but after a few years’ use became dry merely a sharpened, fire-hardened point, arrows 
and brittle and broke. without feathers; and again, arrows feathered 
jiave been stopped by the mat of hair backed 
Wy elastic hide, or the more fragile bone point 
qvould have been shattered by contact with any 
tard substance. 
. American Indians 
y Ihe the North 
Sometimes 
qvere made of wood, bone or horn. 
bows of 
jhe bow was made of a single piece of wood, 
y2metimes of several pieces; perhaps it was of 
‘cod alone, or it might be backed by sinew or 
The material for 
ny the skin of some animal. 
41@€ weapon was gathered whenever it was pos- 
4 ble, and a man might have in his lodge a 
yumber of sticks, each of which he intended 
ltimately to fashion into a bow; or if he did 
tt live long enough for this, the bow wood 
As the im- 
jortant implement of hunter or the 
lould descend to his heirs. most 
warrior, 
yw was highly valued. 
| Bows of bone were made sometimes of sec- 
lons of the rib of large animals, spliced and 
usually backed by 
the 
were 
antler of 
ued together, and 
iew. Those of the 
metimes in a single piece, and at others in 
jetions, beveled at the ends, and neatly glued 
elk were 
|d-spliced. Bows of horn were often made of 
veral pieces, similarly glued and spliced, but 
le horns of the mountain sheep were some- 
Ines cut into long and slender rods which 
‘re straightened, laid together, glued, and 
cked by sinew. Another type of sheep-horn 
Ww was in a single piece, the horn being cur 
a spiral from base of horn to point, this 
iral being steamed or boiled and _ then 
aightened and caused to dry straight. Bows 
if" as these were unusual, but they were also 
ry powerful, and never wore out. On the 
1er hand, it is said, that bows made of bone 

Next to the bow, and in fact so much a part 
of it that it cannot be separated from it, is the 
arrow, a complex implement, the development 
of which we may imagine to have been very 
slow, and which no doubt was well advanced to- 
i form before the bow was 
ward its present 
thought of. We may fancy the arrow to be the 
outgrowth of a simple stabbing instrument, 
which later developed into a dart to be thrown 
from the hand. perhaps similar to certain toys 
still in use the children of our plains 
From the 
velopment may perhaps have been, on the one 
among 
Indians. stabbing instrument, the de- 
hand, simply to the thrusting tool, which be- 
came the lance, used in war and the chase in our 
own times, and on the other to a light dart, to be 
thrown first from the hand, then from a throw- 
ing stick, and lastly, as has been indicated by 
various writers, as a dart to be propelled by 
the bow, and in this combination to be effective 
in war up to a distance more than three hundred 
dangerous to those 
against than the old 
cap and ball pistol, which came into use within 
yards—a weapon more 
whom it was used was 
the memory of living men. 
The arrow consisted of three essential parts, 
the the the 
times the shaft was compound, consisting of more 
The primitive head 
head, shaft, and feathers. Some- 
than one piece of wood. 
was very various. The feathering is compara- 
tively a modern invention, so much so that to- 
day traditions exist as to its development, and 
the various steps toward the improved feather- 
ing of modern times are given. Even within 
the last forty or fifty years the children among 
our wilder tribes have employed very primitive 
after an earlier-method, of which, as practiced 
by adults, we know only by tradition. 
The wooden bow is constructed of 1 great Va- 
riety of woods, each tribe having selected for 
this use that tree growing within its territory 
which is best adapted to the purpose. Besides 
that, certain tribes received from other tribes, 
in the way of trade, staves of woods which did 
United States 
not grow within their range. bows of the 
the Southern 
Atlantic slope, of 
and of the Mississippi Valley, were made chiefly 
of hickory, oak, ash and hornbeam; those of 
California, of osage orange, coffee tree and ash; 
those of the Southwest and of the interior, of 
cottonwood, willow, mesquit, osage orange, 
juniper and mullberry; those of the extrem«¢ 
North, of willow, spruce, birch, maple and 
cedar; while the Pacific slope tribes used yew and 
Besides these, some of the plains In- 
last but 
spruce. 
dians used cedar, cherry and ash—the 
seldom, because it lacks spring, and soon loses 
whatever spring it has. The wood used by the 
Eskimo was chiefly driftwood, and such tim 
ber as they might obtain from wrecks, and by trade 
from the whaling ships that visited their shores 

Over much of the area of western North 
America the bow was strengthened and pre- 
served by a backing of sinew laid on with glue 
after the bow was finished. This sinew added 
much to its power, and tended always to keep it 
straight. It acted as a perpetual pull in the di- 
rection reverse to the string, and this pull was 
so strong that I have seen a fine hickory bow 
after a few years of disuse absolutely pulled 
out of shape and given a curve of two inches 
or more against the string. 

