Over on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, near the dry, desert country, the Indians make some of their baskets in the form of jugs of various sizes.

These are smeared over with a pitch composition, which renders them perfectly water-tight, and they are used for carrying water when traveling over those desolate, sandy wastes.
BOWS AND ARROWS.
The Indian men showed no less ingenuity artistic skill in their special lines of work than the women, especially in manufacture of their bows and arrows, in the making of fish lines and coarser twine out of the soft, flexible bark of the milkweed (_Asclepias speciosa_), and in making other useful implements and utensils with the very limited means at their disposal.
Their bows were made of a branch of the incense cedar (_Libocedrus decurrens_), or of the California nutmeg (_Tumion Californicum [Torreya])_, made flat on the outer side, and rounded smooth on the inner or concave side when the bow is strung for use.

The flat, outer side was covered with sinew, usually that from the leg of a deer, steeped in hot water until it became soft and glutinous, and then laid evenly and smoothly over the wood, and so shaped at the ends as to hold the string in place.

When thoroughly dry the sinew contracted, so that the bow when not strung was concave on the outer side.
[Illustration: _Photograph by Boysen._ A BASKET MAKER.
She is weaving a burden basket.

The one to the left is for cooking, and a baby basket stands against the tent.] When not in use the bow was always left unstrung.