Page:Voyages in the Northern Pacific - 1896.djvu/80

sinew of the elk, and it requires a man of some strength to string them. The Chinooks are very expert in the use of this weapon; they will stand on the deck and stick an arrow into the truck with ease. Their arrows are made of light wood, and pointed with stone, bone, glass, ivory, or iron. Those barbed with ivory I have seen pierce a three-quarter of an inch plank at twelve yards distance. One day some of our people were practising the bow on board; they stood aft, and endeavored to strike a small looking-glass placed on the bow of the vessel, but none of them could succeed. An Indian, who was standing by, laughed most heartily at them, and taking up his bow, stood on the stern, and shooting, broke the glass in pieces, at a distance of 95 feet, the mark being about three inches square. The bludgeon is made of bone or iron, about two feet long, and stout in proportion, and handsomely carved and ornamented; the daggers are made of flint-stone or iron, and are held by the middle, so that they use both ends. The natives have a kind of loop to the bludgeon and dagger, which goes over the wrist, to prevent their being wrenched out of their hands; and they never stir out without one of these weapons. Their original tools are chisels made out of the pine knot, axes of stone, and stone mallets. With these they split large cedar trees into planks, with which they build their houses. Their canoes are very simple; some are large enough to carry 30 people, being about 40 feet long, the middle nearly six feet broad, and becoming gradually narrower toward the end.