This is the oak which is so beautiful and abundant in the Yosemite Valley.
These acorns are quite bitter, and are not eaten in their natural condition, as most fruit and nuts are eaten, but have to be quite elaborately prepared and cooked to make them palatable.

First, the hull is cracked and removed, and the kernel pounded or ground into a fine meal.

In the Yosemite Valley and at other Indian camps in the mountains, this is done by grinding with their stone pestles or _metats (may-tat's)_ in the _ho'yas_ or mortars, worn by long usage in large flat-top granite rocks, one of which is near every Indian camp.

Lower down in the foothills, where there are no suitable large rocks for these permanent mortars, the Indians used single portable stone mortars for this purpose.
[Illustration: _Photograph by Fiske_.
HO'-YAS AND ME-TATS'.
Rude mortars and pestles for grinding acorn meal.

The holes have been worn in the granite by constant use.] After the acorns are ground to a fine meal, the next process is to take out the bitter tannin principle.