Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/225

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192
Summer.

needs to be trimmed up with a pocket-knife, and scraped smooth with a piece of broken glass to make it a finished weapon.

A large wood-rasp or file is of great assistance in shaping the implement. Fig. 124 C shows a finished boomerang. Image missingFig. 124. Fig. 124 D shows a cross section of the same. The curve in no two boomerangs is exactly the same; some come round with a graceful sweep, while others bend so suddenly in the middle that they have more the appearance of angles than curves. Just what the quality is that makes a good boomerang is hard to discover, although, as a rule, the one that appears to have the best balance and feels as if it might be thrown easily is the best.

To Throw a Boomerang,

grasp the weapon near one end and hold it as you would a club; be careful to have the concave side, or hollow curvature, turned from you and the convex side toward you. Take aim at a stone, tuft of grass or other object on the ground about a hundred yards in front of you, and throw the weapon at the object. The weapon will in all probability not go anywhere near the mark, but, soaring aloft, perform some of the most extraordinary manœuvres, then starting off again with apparently renewed velocity, either return to the spot from where it was thrown or go sailing off over the fields like a thing possessed of life. A boomerang cast by a beginner is very dangerous in a crowd, for there is no telling where it is going to alight, and

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