Bottom, s. The lowest part of any thing; the ground under the water; a ball of thread wound up together. The constancy or durability of a man, horse, or dog.
Bound, s. A limit, a boundary; a leap, a jump, a spring.
Bound, v. To jump, to spring.
Bourgeon, v. obs. To sprout, to shoot into branches.
Bow, s. To bend, or incline, in condescension.
Bow, v. An instrument of war, or of the chase; a rainbow; the instrument with which stringed instruments are played upon.
The cross-bow is an instrument of great antiquity, formerly used in projecting bolts or short arrows, for which, in modern times, bullets have been substituted.
Rooks, although pertaining to no species of game, yet the custom of shooting them being adopted by many gentlemen who use the cross-bow for that purpose, and since upon the proper regulation of this instrument, the whole of its execution depends, directions are therefore here given to render it useful.
Cross-bows employed formerly as weapons in war, and also to kill animals in the field, (where great nicety of vision was required, to find those sorts of game that kept upon the ground, for the cross-bow was always used at motionless objects), were of somewhat the shape as those of the present day, at least those that now throw what is termed a bolt. The bullet-bows are of modern and much neater construction, and their accuracy, when once set, is astonishing; the splitting a ball upon the edge of a knife, however extraordinary it may sound, is to be performed by a novice, at a distance of from fifteen to twenty yards, and the bow, once regulated, will throw the ball with the same unerring certainty for fifty times successively.
Directions.—When shooting where the trees are lofty, try the bow at fourteen yards upon a level, stopping all the holes in the sight but one; if it shoots too high, raise the bead higher on the fork; if too low, the contrary: should it carry to the right, turn the bead round to the right; if to the left, the contrary.