The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-10-03
Es THAT FAILED TO KILL.
Odd Arrow Heads and Curious Bullets
from the Flesh OF Migrating Birds.

Odd Arrow Heads and Curious Bullets
from the Flesh of Migrating Birds.
A salmon taken in Bakers Lay,
Wash, had the shaft of a spear stick
ing through its head, which had been
Embedded there about eight months,
Judging from the state of the wound
md the time the fish was taken. The
aupposition is thai the fish assembled an
Alaskan river and was speared by an
Indian.
Out on the prairies, when the
buffaloes were to be counted by thou
sands, the hunters frequently found
the arrow of various Indians imbedded
in the flesh Of the big brutes-now the
Sioux arrow, again the Blackfeet, and
again the Comanche. The finding of an
arrow in such a herd of game often
told of a roaming of thousands Of miles,
but nowadays the mammals that have
been wounded, which still fear the
missile hat hurt them, carry only the
lead from a hunters rifle, the beasts
not ranging to the far north, where ar
rows and spears are still used. So 1t Is
that only birds, and once in awhile a
fish, bring down an Alaskan's weapon
to be examined by hunters in Ohio. on
the Chesapeake bay,or some other place
where geese and are killed.
A curious tale is to be gathered from
two letters published in the Forest and
Stream. On one occasion p. Byron
Wood, M. D., wrote that James Frick,
of Baltimore, captured a wild swan,
which was prepared for the table. An
iron arrow head, whose shank had been
notched deeply so that it would hold,
was found In the breast beneath the
pectoral muscle, lying against and
buried in the breast bone to the depth
of n quarter of an inch. The arrow
head was covered with q membranous
tissue, as are all old missiles found
buried in the flesh of animals. It was
made of one-sixteenth-inch iron
barrel hoop. maybe-and was over four
inches long.
Another letter was from L. ". Nelson,
of Tucson. Ariz., which said. in part:
During my explorations in Alaska
I procured several quivers Of iron
tipped arrows. notched as the original
in your cut Of the arrow head found in
the Chesapeake Bay swan. and the form
being unusual. The region where I Sc
cured my arrows was probably the
BA1no NnCTC lRC bWdh VIVA ShOOp pAS
Upper Yukon river, about 200 miles
above Fort Yukon. They were made by
the Tutchone-Kutchin tribe of the
Chippeway Indians. The swans are
very abundant on the Upper Yukon"
A swan shot on the Grand river, e
gainesville, o.. in the spring Of 1882. had
q copper-tipped arrow through n of
its wings. The shaft of the arrow was
of bone. The flesh had grown about 1t
firmly. It was supposed to be an
Alaskan arrow, but no n knew for
certain.
In the fall of 1886 John Simon, of
Landing. Yolo county, CAL. hot a wild
goose. Buried In it's breast was an
ivory arrow head curiously carved.
When John Murdoch, connected with
the United States National museum at
Washington, read Of Simon's goose he
wrote that the ivory arrow head was
undoubtedly one made by the Eskimos
of northwestern Alaska, of which ivory
arrow heads q hundred or more were In
the museum. The natives in the neigh
borhood Of Point Barrow make a
slender polygonal arrow head Of ivory
about Ave inches long for the purpose of
shooting large birds. such as geese and
swans.
The Pioneer. of Summerside. o.. in
1885 told Of q wild goose which Benja-
min Tanton. of st. Eleanors. o., bought
that had been shot in Richmond bay.
While it was being prepared for cooking
an ounce lead ball was found complete
Iy encysted In Its liver. The bullet was
O curious one, such as an Indian or a
trapper who had lost his mold might
be expected TO make. 1t had been ham
mered, instead Of cast, into shape.
Fredertck Schwatka's "Nimrods of
the NORTH" tells OF finding the Eskimos
Of King William Land and vicinity
using copper that had been stripped
from the ships Sir John Franklin went
north in to make rivets Of for fastening
their bows together.-Fishing Ga
zette.