HOW TO MAKE A BOW AND ARROW

Bow hunting season is now in full force here in western New York, and when we recently read the following essay by "Charles R. Bullis, Second yr. English, September 25, 1906," we thought it an appropriate time to share with you the fifteen-year-old's idea of "How to make a Bow and Arrow."

"I am now about to describe the manufacture of the bow and arrow the weapon upon which the Indians and many other nations depend to procure the food supply and which played such an important part in the history of the English our ancestors, or rather to tell how they may bee constructed from local material and used as a pleasant out door sport.

"Yew and Lancewood are undoubtebly the best wood for bow but osage orange, white ash, hickory, apple tree and cedar all of which grow in this locality will make very good bows. The wood should be winter cut and well seasoned and the bow should be made from that part of the tree where the heart wood joins the sap wood. There were many kinds of bows used by different tribes some of horn, some of bone some of wood backed with sinew and some compound but I will tell how an effective bow might be made with a moderate expenditure of labor.

"The bow should be made of straight grained wood with a straight part in the middle while the ends should be shaved down evenly untill they are of the proper strength. The Indians used sinew for the bow string but braided linen will do just as well. The indians oiled their bows to protect them from moisture as well as to render them more elastic, a fact which may be used to advantage by people owning bows.

"The arrows may be made of well seasoned white pine, cedar, ash or hickory split out of straight grained pieces and planed round and smooth. The Indians used bone or siliceous stone to make the arrow heads but hoop iron is better or the arrows ends may be hardened in a fire. The arrows should have half of three wing feathers (all left or all right) fastened lengthwise at the back end of the arrow to make them go straight unless the head is extry heavy which would answer the same purpose. The notch in the back end of the arrow is called the nock and it may be easily made with a saw.

"When the glue dries that has been used in fastening the feathers there will be a good outfit from which much ammusement may be had shooting at sparrows and targets."

We don't know whether Charlie Bullis ever made his own bow and arrow, but his directions earned a "good" comment from his teacher (along with numerous spelling corrections). As readers, we also give him a "good" because we gained a greater appreciation for our ancestors skills and abilities to produce useful tools with native materials.