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A—Belly, B—Neutral zone, C—Back. elm in order of their accepted merits. The string was of linen,usually from 30 to 36 strands of No. 12 Barbours' shoemakersthread. The string had a handmade loop in the upper end,the lower end being reinforced and fastened with a timberhitch; it was served with linen thread and usually had a gailycolored ribbon connecting the upper loop to the bow nock toprevent it from sagging when the bow was not braced. The long bow, especially one made from prime yew, is verysmooth and sweet shooting. It lacks, however, that qualityknown as cast. In other words, arrows shot from it do not havethe velocity of ones shot from shorter bows. At distances up to60 yards the long bow is a joy to use but, when the archer triesfor a good score at 100 yards, he finds that his arrows dropshort. He is compelled to select a point of aim well above thetarget in order to make hits. The English (who have alwaysbeen bound by tradition) made no attempt to increase the cast |
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