Many a time that brilliant red, with the white feather next it, was the means of saving the arrow from loss.

An uncoloured arrow among the sticks and leaves of the woods was usually hidden, but the bright-coloured shaft could catch the eye 100 yards away.
It was very necessary to keep the bow and arrows from the wet.

For this, every hunter provides a case, usually of buckskin, but failing that they made a good quiver of birch bark laced with spruce roots for the arrows, and for the bow itself a long cover of tarpaulin.
Now came the slow drilling in archery; the arrow held and the bow drawn with three fingers on the cord--the thumb and little finger doing nothing.

The target was a bag of hay set at twenty feet, until the beginner could hit it every time: then by degrees it was moved away until at the standard distance of forty yards he could do fair shooting, although of course he never shot as well as the Indian, who had practised since he was a baby.
There are three different kinds of archery tests: the first for aim: Can you shoot so truly as to hit a three-inch mark, ten times in succession, at ten paces?
Next for speed: Can you shoot so quickly and so far up, as to have five arrows in the air at once?
If so, you are good: Can you keep up six?
Then you are very good.

Seven is wonderful.