[302]. Compare what I have already said about the backing being put on wet.
[303]. Voyages from Montreal . . . to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. 48.
[304]. Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition, article Archery.
[305]. On this subject of using the feathers of birds of prey for arrows, compare Crantz, History of Greenland, i, p. 146, “the arrow . . . winged behind with a couple of raven’s feathers.” Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 869 (the three arrows at Ita had raven’s feathers). Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 511, “Toward the opposite end of the arrow are two feathers, generally of the spotted owl, not very neatly lashed on;” and Kumlien, Contributions, p. 37, “The feather-vanes were nearly always made from the primaries of Strix scandiaca or Graculus carbo.” The last is the only mention I find of using any feathers except those of birds of prey.
[306]. Op. cit., p. 266.
[307]. Compare the passage in Frobisher’s Second Voyage (Hakluyt, 1589, p. 628). After describing the different forms of arrowheads used by the Eskimo of “Meta Incognita” (Baffin Land) in 1577 he says: “They are not made very fast, but lightly tyed to, or else set in a nocke, that upon small occasion the arrowe leaveth these heads behind them.”
[308]. “In shooting this weapon the string is placed on the first joint of the first and second fingers of the right hand.” (Kumlien, Contributions, p. 37.)
“Beim Spannen wird der Pfeil nicht zwischen Daumen und Zeigefinger, sondern zwischen Zeige- und Mittelfinger gehalten,” Krause Brothers, Geographische Blätter, vol. 5, p. 33.
[309]. Voyage to the Northern Whale Fishery, p. 187.
[310]. 2d Voyage, p. 511, and figured with the bow (22) on Pl. opposite p. 550.