rds, acorns, berries,
pine nuts, esculent herbage and the tuberous roots of certain
plants, all of which were easily obtained, even with their simple
and limited means of securing them. Mushrooms, fungi,
grasshoppers, worms and the larvae of ants and other insects,
were also eaten, and some of these articles were considered great
delicacies.

HUNTING.

Their main effective weapons for hunting large game were their
bows and obsidian-pointed arrows. Their manner of hunting was
either by the stealthy still hunt, or a general turn-out,
surrounding a large area of favorable country and driving to a
common center, where at close range the hunters could sometimes
make an extensive slaughter.

[Illustration: _Drawing by Jorgensen._
A YOSEMITE HUNTER.
He wears a false deer's head, to deceive the game.]

When on the still hunt for deer in the brushy, sparsely timbered
foothills of the Sierra Range of mountains, or higher up in the
extensive forests, some of the hunters wore for a headgear a
false deer's head, by which deceptive device they were enabled to
get to a closer and more effective range with their bows and
arrows. This head-dress was made of the whole skin of a doe's
head, with a part of the neck, the head part stuffed with light
material, the eyeholes filled in with the green feathered scalp
of a duck's head, and the top furnished with light wooden horns,
the branching stems of the manzanita (_Arctostaphylos_) being
generally used for this purpose. The neck part was made to fit on
the hunter's head and fasten with strings tied under the chin.
This unique style of headgear was used by some Indian hunters for
many years after they had guns to hunt with.

[Illustration: _Drawing by Jorgensen_
INDIAN SWEAT HOUSE.
Used by the Yosemite hunters before starting after game.]

The high ranges of the mountains, as already stated, were
considered common hunting ground by the different tribes. The
deer, many of them, were in some degree migratory in their
habits, being driven from the higher ranges to the foothills by
the deep winter snows, and in the spring following close to the
melting, receding snow, back again to their favorite summer
haunts.

Late in the summer, or early in the fall, just before holding
some of their grand social or sacred festivals, the Indian
hunters would make preparation for a big hunt in the mountains,
to get a good supply of venison for the feast. One of the first
absolute prerequisites