[Footnote N296: “In former times they made use of bows for land game; they were made of soft fir, a fathom in length, and to make it the stiffer it was bound round with whalebone or sinews.” History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 146.] [Footnote N297: “Their Bow is of an ordinary Make, commonly made of Fir Tree, . . . and on the Back strengthened with Strings made of Sinews of Animals, twisted like Thread.” “The Bow is a good fathom long.” Greenland, p. 101.] [Footnote N298: Voyage of the Vega, vol. 1, p. 41.] The first mention of the Eskimo bow with sinew backing will be found in Frobisher’s account of his visit to Meta Incognita in 1577:[N299] “Their bowes are of wood of a yard long, sinewed on the back with strong sinewes, not glued too, but fast girded and tyed on. Their bowe strings are likewise sinewes.” [Footnote N299: Hakluyt’s Voyages, 1589, p. 628.] Of the bow used at the straits of Fury and Hecla we have a most excellent figure in Parry’s Second Voyage (Pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 22), and the most accurate description to be found in any author. It is, in fact, as exact a description as could be made from an external examination of the bow. From the figure the bow appears to have been almost of the arctic type, having an unusual number of strands (sometimes sixty, p. 511) which are not, however, twisted, but secured with a spiral wrapping, as on southern bows. The backing is stopped to the handle, but not otherwise seized. It appears to have been rather a large bow, as Parry gives the length of one of their best bows, made of a single piece of fir, as “4 feet 8 inches” (p. 510). “A bow of one piece is, however, very rare; they generally consist of from two to five pieces of bone of unequal lengths, fastened together by rivets and treenails” (p. 511). Parry also speaks of the use of wedges for tightening the backing. Schwatka[N300] speaks of the Netyĭlĭk of King Williams Land as using bows of spliced pieces of musk-ox horn or driftwood, but gives no further description of them. Ellis[N301] describes the bow in use at Hudson’s Strait in 1746 as follows: Their greatest Ingenuity is shown in the Structure of their Bows, made commonly of three Pieces of Wood, each making a part of the same Arch, very nicely and exactly joined together. They are commonly of Fir or Larch, which the English there call Juniper, and as this wants Strength and Elasticity, they supply both by bracing the Back of the Bow with a kind of Thread or Line made of the Sinew of their Deer, and the Bowstring of the same material. To make them draw more stiffly, they dip them into Water, which causes both the Back of the Bow and the String to contract, and consequently gives it the greater force.[N302] [Footnote N300: Science, vol. 4, 98, p. 543.] [Footnote N301: Voyage to Hudson’s Bay, p. 138.] [Footnote N302: Compare what I have already said about the backing being put on wet.]