To string it for use, it was necessary in cold weather to warm it, thus making it more elastic and easily bent.

The best strings were also made of sinew, or of pax-wax cartilage, for their finest bows.
The arrows were made of reeds and various kinds of wood, including the syringa (_Philadelphus Lewisii_) and a small shrub or tree which the Indians called _Le-ham'-i-tee,_ or arrow-wood, and which grew quite plentifully in what is now known as Indian Canyon, near the Yosemite Falls.
The finest arrows were furnished with points made of obsidian, or volcanic glass, which was obtained in the vicinity of Mono Lake on the eastern side of the Sierras.

It required great care and delicate skill to work this brittle material into the fine sharp points, and the making of them seemed to be a special business or trade with some of the old men.

Arrows furnished with these points were only used in hunting large game, or in hostile combat with enemies; for common use, in hunting small game, the hard wooden arrow was merely sharpened to a point.
The butt, or end used on the string, was furnished with three or four short strips of feathers taken from a hawk's wing, and fastened on lengthwise.

These strips of feathers are supposed to aid in the more accurate flight of the arrow when shot from the bow.
When out on a hunt the Indian carried his bow strung ready for use, and his bundle of assorted arrows in a quiver made of the skin of a small fox, wild-cat or fisher, hung conveniently over his shoulder.
These primitive weapons, which were in universal use by the Yosemite Indians fifty years ago, are now never seen except in some collection of Indian relics and curios.
Other articles manufactured by these tribes were stone hammers, and also others made from the points of deer horns mounted on wooden handles, which they used in delicately chipping the brittle obsidian in forming arrowheads.