(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

NATIVE TRIBES. of

For bows, yew was preferred; fine-grained, red yew being considered superior
to and stronger than the white sapwood. Yew is elastic, tough, resilient, of
great ductile strength, and resistant to fracture. Where not available, the Coast
tribes substituted cedar and the Interior Salish fell back on juniper, which they
often covered with snake-skin. "The Chilcotin and Carrier perforce used willow.

In all cases it was customary to back the bows with sinew or hide, of which,
also, bow-strings were made. ‘Iwo types of bow were in use—the broad and the
narrow; the former, with a grooved ridge along the centre line, was usually
preferred.

PLATE IX.

i ammmrccscssese ttt pie Le OE LLUEOLTELD LLL LLL OD MELO,

Courtesy of Provincial Museum, Victoria, B.C.

(1) Feathered arrow with stone head. (2) Feathered arrow, double metal head.
(3) Broad-backed bow. (4) Arrow with bone head. (5) Bird-arrow with blunt
point.

The best arrows were found among the tribes of the Interior. “Their shafts
were made of cedar, service-berry, dogwood, or hazelwood. ‘The heads, fitted
into a bone foreshaft, were made of flint, jasper, quartz, deer-bone, sharp shell,
or copper, and were carved with single or double barbs. But the number of
stone arrow-heads still picked up on the sea-beaches or from the sites of old
villages testify to their widespread use in prehistoric days. Blunt points of elder-
wood were substituted for practice or when shooting birds, which they sufficed
to stun.

On the Coast, arrows were carried in narrow oblong boxes to protect them
from wet, either when hunting or on war expeditions. Skin bags were used as
quivers in the Interior, where the feathers, fastened to the shafts with spruce glue,
were those of the chicken-hawk, owl, or grouse.

W ar-clubs were formidable weapons made from stone, bone, or wood. ‘The
Haida and Tsimshian relied upon close-grained stone and the bone of whales.
Stone war-clubs have been excavated from a depth of 27 feet on Vancouver
Island; but the general type of paddle-shaped war-club on the North Pacific
Coast was made from the bone of whales, which were evidently traded inland,
for specialized forms have been found at Kamloops. Other types of. club were
curved or had wide, flat blades; and many had perforated handles, usually
carved, through which a lanyard was passed to be secured round the owner’s
wrist. Harlan I. Smith gives numerous illustrations of these carved handles,
representing sea-lions, eagles’ heads, and quaint human faces; many of the blades
were also elaborately incised. Very rarely, these clubs were made of jade; a
luxury possible only to a very great chief. “They showed the highest finish of any
jade implements to reach the Coast, and were also in use for ceremonial slave-
killing.