95.
A double Cross-bow, neate, handsome and strong, to shoot two Arrows, either together, or one after the other, so immediately that a Deer cannot run two steps but, if he miss[5] of one Arrow, he may be reach’d with the other, whether the Deer run forward, sideward, or start backward.
Footnote
[5]be missed.
[A double Cross-bow.] The employment of the cross-bow still lingered when this was first published in 1663. The invention is so obvious that any particular description would be superfluous, the whole effect consisting in either shooting the two arrows singly, or together.
In an article on Cross-bows, in Fosbroke’s Encyclopedia of Antiquities, 1840, it is stated that—“In a letter remissory, dated 1420, it is said, ‘lequel Haquinet a chevauchie tendu crenequins et arbalestes a croc’—that is, which Haquinet rode along with crenequins bent, and arbalestes on the hook. By the croc or crook is meant the hook, into which the trigger caught; of use both in bending the bow and shooting.”
96.
A way to make a Sea-bank so firm and Geometrically-strong, that a stream can have no power over it; excellent likewise to save the Pillar of a Bridge, being far cheaper and stronger then Stone-walls.
[A way for Sea-banks.] This article stands alone in the “Century” as an example of a singular divergence from its author’s main course of pursuits. It is more than likely that his idea in the present instance was the mere use of loose stones, laid down at such a curvature as to break rather than resist the force of heavy seas and rapid torrents, for such a plan would be decidedly “cheaper and stronger” than any masonry, especially if presenting a vertical surface to the surging sea.
97.