The beginner may expect his
first two or three will be failures, but after that he can at least
shoot them.
Since there are so many different kinds of bows and all so inferior to
the English long-bow, we shall describe this alone.
Yew wood is the greatest bow timber in the world. That was proved
thousands of years ago by experience. It is indeed a magic wood!
But yew wood is hard to get and hard to make into a bow once having got
it. Nevertheless, I am going to tell you where you can get it and how
to work it, and how to make hunting bows just as we use them today, and
presumably just as our forefathers used them before us. Later on I
shall tell you what substitutes may be used for yew.
The best yew wood in America grows in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon,
in the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges of northern California. By
addressing the Department of Forestry, doubtless one can get in
communication with some one who will cut him a stave. Living in
California, I cut my own.
A description of yew trees and their location may be had from
Sudworth's "_Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope_," to be obtained from
the Government Printing Office at Washington.
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