tion many archers have of holding when fully drawn. This they exhibit by constantly letting the arrow creep out whilst they appear to be taking aim, as though they were quite incapable of checking its impatience to be off. This is most dangerous fault, and must be most carefully guarded against.

LOOSING.

After the bow has been drawn up to its proper extent, and the aim correctly taken, there still remains one more point which the archer must achieve successfully before he can ensure the correct and desired flight of his arrow to its mark; and this is the point of loosing, which term is applied to the act of quitting or freeing the string from the fingers of the right hand which retain it. It is the last of Ascham's famous 'Quintette,' wherein, though he does not say much, yet what he does say is so much to the point that it may well be quoted. It must be so quycke and hard yet it be wyth oute all guides, so softe and gentle that the shafte flye not as it were sente out of a bow case. The meane betwixt bothe, whyche is the perfyte lowsynge, is not so hard to be folowed in shootynge as it is to be descrybed in the teachyng. For cleane lowsynge you must take hede of hyttynge anythynge aboute you. And for the same purpose Leo the Emperour would haue al archers in war to haue both theyr heades pouled and there berdes shauen, lest the heare of theyr heades should stop the syght of the eye, the heere of theyr berdes hinder the course of the strynge.'

This loosing is the archer's crowning difficulty; for no matter how correct and perfect may be all the rest of his performance, the result will infallibly prove a failure, and end in disappointment, unless the loose also be successfully mastered. Upon this the flight of the arrow mainly depends, and to how great an extent this may be affected by it may be gathered from the fact that the same bow with a like weight of arrow

and length of pull will cast many yards further in the hands of one man than it will in those of another, owing solely and entirely to the different manner in which the string shall have been quitted.

No arguments are necessary to prove how delicate an operation it is in archery to loose well, and to accomplish, with the evenness, smoothness, and unvarying similarity necessary for accurate hitting, the consummating effort, including as it does on the one side of an instant the greatest exertion of muscles that on the other side of that instant are in perfect repose. But considerable misapprehension exists amongst archers as to what is a good loose, it being often thought that if an extreme sharpness of flight be communicated to the arrow, it is conclusive evidence as to the goodness of the loose, without reference to the consideration that this extreme sharpness of loose seldom produces steadily successful hitting at any distance, and still less frequently is effective at all the distances. A thoroughly good loose cannot exist unless accuracy of hitting as well as keenness of flight be the combined result; and if the two cannot be obtained together, a slower flight with accuracy rises immeasurably superior to the rapid flight with uncertainty.

man.

The flight of an arrow keenly loosed is as fair to view as that of any bird, whilst the flight of an arrow that is badly loosed is as uninteresting as the staggerings of a drunken This is quite apart from the consideration of hitting the object aimed at; but when the question resolves itself into this practical form-'Is it possible for the same mode of loosing to give the utmost rapidity of flight and at the same time certainty of line and elevation ?' -the consensus of experience should be in the negative. There is no denying that a few sucçessive arrows may be shot accurately in this way, but during any prolonged period the inaccuracy of flight is sure to be such as to render the average shooting inferior. The difficulty, amounting almost to an impossibility, of obtaining a loose

which shall combine great sharpness and accuracy of flight at the same time arises from the fact that such a loose requires, to obtain that sharpness, that the fingers of the right hand be snatched away from the string with such suddenness and rapidity as to compromise the second quality of accuracysuch a sudden jerk of the string endangering the steadiness of the left arm at the final moment, and, by its unavoidable irregularity, not only having a tendency to drag the string and consequently the arrow out of the proper line of flight, but also simultaneously to vary the elevation. Excepting for long-distance shooting, then, a very sharp loose cannot be recommended; nevertheless, in case he may be at any time engaged therein, the archer perfect at all points should have it under his command.

The different looses may now be divided into the slashing loose, which may degenerate into the snatch or may be improved into the steady continuous loose. The chief contrast to this is the dead loose, which in strong hands is very useful. This consists of the simple opening of the fingers for the escape of the string, and is liable to degenerate into the creeping loose, which need not be further referred to except for the purpose of again urging its avoidance. Another loose, which may be called an active loose, is an appreciable improvement upon the dead loose in that the fingers at the loosing instant are withdrawn from the string, though without any further draw, and will be found, after the escape of the string, to have resumed their previous position-i.e. curled up instead of being sprawled out straight as is the case in the dead loose. The only remaining loose may be called the lively loose, and consists of a short and quick additional draw, after the aim has been taken, of say from half an inch to three inches, and finished with an active loose, and care must be taken to prevent the degeneration of this into a snatch.

Before the final treatment of the loose be entered upon, it