This is then taken, and, after being cleansed from the adhering sand, is put into cooking baskets, thinned down with hot water to the desired condition, and cooked by means of hot stones which are held in it with two sticks for tongs. The mush, while cooking, is stirred with a peculiar stirring stick, made of a tough oak sprout, doubled so as to form a round, open loop at one end, which is used in lifting out any loose stones. When the dough is well cooked, it is either left _en masse_ in the basket or scooped out in rolls and put into cold water to cool and warden before being eaten. Sometimes the thick paste is made into cakes and baked on hot rocks. One of these cakes, when rolled in paper, will in a short time saturate it with oil. This acorn food is probably more nutritious than any of the cereals. INDIAN DOGS. The Indian dogs, of which every family had several, are as fond of the acorn food as their owners. These dogs are made useful in treeing wild-cats, California lions and gray squirrels, and are very expert in catching ground squirrels by intercepting them when away from their burrows, and when the Indians drown them out in the early spring by turning water from the flooded streams into their holes. As far as can be learned, dogs were about the only domestic animals which the Yosemites, and other adjacent tribes of Indians, kept for use before the country was settled by the white people. NUTS AND BERRIES. Pine nuts were another important article of food, and were much prized by the Indians. They are very palatable and nutritious, and are also greatly relished by white people whenever they can be obtained. The seeds of the Digger or nut pine (_Pinus Sabiniana_) were the ones most used on the western side of the Sierras, although the seeds of the sugar pine (_P. Lambertiana_) were also sometimes eaten. On account of their soft shell, nuts from the pinon pine (_P. monophylla_), which grows principally on the eastern side of the mountains, were considered superior to either of the other kinds, and were an important article of barter with the tribes of that region. All of these trees are very prolific, and their crop of nuts in fruitful years has been estimated to be even greater than the enormous wheat crop of California, although of course but a very small portion of it is ever gathered. Many other kinds of nuts and seeds were also eaten.