
Nov. 30, 1907.] 
a 

modern belief. As I have more than once said, 
the archer could discharge his arrows more 
rapidly and with greater certainty of hitting his 
mark within a distance of forty or fifty yards 
than the average man could use a modern re- 
volver. At game the weapon was discharged 
usually at Short range, because’ the Indian had 
abundant patience, was a good hunter, and meant 
to have every shot tell. 
'which was only wounded might carry away the 
arrow, so that it could not be 
since arrows were hard to get and so valuable, 
Moreover, an animal 

recovered, and 
jno man wished to lose one. In war, on the other 
jhand, the bow’s range was great. Indians would 
often loose their shafts at enemies several. hun- 
\dred yards distant, aiming the arrow well up- 
ward so that its range might be great and it 
might fall among the enemy. At such a distance 
las this no attempt was made to aim at an in- 
dividual object, but the arrow was sent more 
ior less at random, and followed with the eye, 
so that a general notion of where it struck might 
Ibe had, and a subsequent shaft might be sent 
jmore effectively. Men have pointed out to me 
objects on the prairie five hundred yards dis- 
tant, and have told me that in war they would 
shoot with their bows at that distance. In hunt- 
jing, and at close range, it was not uncommon 
for a man to send his arrow clear through a 
and I have recorded several instances 
where men have killed two buffaloes running 
side by side with a single arrow. I do not doubt 
the ability of an Indian to send an arrow head 
|hrough an ordinary telegraph pole, four or five 
nches in diameter, and the old writers tell us 
\shat the Spaniards, though protected by armor, 
jvere often killed by arrows. 
| How efficient these arms were in war is shown 
n an extremely interestingly paper in the Ameri- 
jan Ornithologist, N. S., Vol. 3, 1901, written by 
jhe late Thomas Wilson. The cuts which follow 
\buffalo, 
}f interest. I owe thanks for them to Mr. T. 
jV. Hodge, the editor of that journal, and to the 
,J. S. National Museum. Many ancient human 
|keletons have been discovered which show traces 
jf wounds. Those taken from the cave at Cro- 
jlagnon show such indications as do other an- 
jient bones found at other points in France. 
j\mong these are some which have arrow points 
till sticking in the bones, such as the human 
ertebra and tibia, here figured, both prehistoric, 
nd both pierced by a flint point. Cases such 
|s this are not uncommon. One of the illustra- 
jions shows an ancient skull from California 
jierced by a flint arrow point; another an ancient 
ertebra, from an Indian mound near Fort Wads- 
jrorth, Dakota, and the white quartz arrow point 
; seen still in it. New bone had formed about 
ae wound, showing that the man did not imme- 
jiately die, but survived for some months at 
j2ast. Another ancient skull, from Henderson 
jounty, Ill., is pierced by a stone arrow point, 
yad another not figured, from a Missouri mound 
J20ws a wound over the orbit which broke away 
jnd destroyed much of the bone there. The 
jeapon ,by which the wound was made of course 
; not known, but from the small size of the 
,ound, and its considerable depth, it seems quite 
|.ear that it was an arrow head. 
4 The two large figures of spear heads sticking 
1 human bones came from Kentucky. In one 
ise the spear head is 3% inches long and 134 
jiches wide; it is sticking in the pelvis. The 
|2cond specimen is 4 inches long by 13% inches 

l 
y 


Jire largely taken from that paper, and are full 





OPERATIONS IN ARROW MAKING, 
1. Knocking off flint chins from block, one person op*ratine. 2. 
working a flint chip with the flaking tool. 
wide, and the bone it pierced is conjectured to 
be the head of the thigh bone. 
Not a few cases of arrow wounds and their 
treatment have been reported by U. S. surgeons 
serving in the Indian country during war times. 
Arrow wounds piercing brain, heart or spinal 
column are of course quite certain to be fatal, 
but there are many cases on record where arrows 
have passed clear through the lungs, and men 
have recovered and apparently been as well as 
ever. It is noticed by Surgeon J. H. Bill, in the 
American Journal of Medical Science, that owing 
to the rapidity with which the American In- 
dians discharged their arrows, an individual re- 
ceiving one wound is almost sure to receive 
others. The records of army surgeons tend to 
confirm this statement. For example, in the fall 
of 1867 a private in the 31st Infantry, while a 
few hundred yards from camp at Fort Steven- 
son, Dakota, received three severe wounds from 
Indian arrows. One of these passed through 
the neck, another through the fleshy portion of 
the right forearm, and the third pierced the left 
forearm near the elbow. Near Camp Lincoln, 
in Arizona, in the autumn of 1868, a private in 
the 14th Infantry received a gun shot wound in 
the upper portion of the left arm, a cut from an 
arrow in the left ear, two flesh wounds from 
arrows, two arrow wounds in the right knee, 
one gun shot wound in the right elbow, and 
another through the richt hand. 
Nat Crabtree, a well known citizen of Mon- 
3, 4 and 5, 
Same, two persons operating. 
6. Attaching head to the arrow. 
tana, while out looking for cattle in April, 1868, 
received nine arrow wounds. He was taken to 
Camp Cook and died shortly afterward. 
Many more cases might be reported, all of 
them of more or: less interest. The Surgeon- 
General of the U. S. Army, in a circular issued 
in August, 1891, reports eighty-three cases of 
arrow wounds, of which twenty-six proved fatal. 
Of these fatal cases nearly all involved wounds 
in the three great cavities or in the larger bones 
or joints. 
Within the United States there is 
locality where the bow and the arrow are used 
for other purposes than amusement, but in the 
far north arrows are still used to kill game, 
though even now they are being superseded— 
and very rapidly—by the white man’s firearm. 
Aleuts and Eskimos, however, still use for the 
capture of fish and birds, arrows to which are at- 
tached long slender sinew strings, which, drag- 
ging behind the creature struck by the arrow, 
tend to retard its progress and to tire it out. 
We may fancy that a day when the small In- 
dian boy shall give up his toy bow and arrow 
is far distant, and succeeding generations of 
such boys will hunt ground squirrels and rab- 
bits and little birds in the bush with the same 
patient ardor that their ancestors used, though 
with constantly less and less success. But as 
a practical weapon in warfare and in hunting 
the bow and the arrow in North America have 
forever passed out of existence. 
now no 

