40 BULLETIN 87, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Plate 5, figures 1 and 2, which show scoring over imbrication, are from 

 lower Blue Eiver and Spur Ranch, respectiA^ely ; 3 and 4, with orna- 

 mented imbrication, are from Blue and Tularosa; figures 5 to 17, 

 with scored ornaments, are from Spur Ranch, upper and lower Blue 

 and Tularosa rivers; and 18 and 19 are from the Tularosa Cave. 

 On plate 6, 1 is of indented coil, Blue; 2, pinched wave coil, Spur 

 Ranch; 3, scored and indented coil, Tularosa Cave; 4— 5, coil pinched to 

 form lumps, lower Blue River ; 6, basket impression on unburnt paste 

 containing pounded juniper bapk, Tularosa Cave; 7, pinched wave 

 coil, Spur Ranch; scored coil, Tularosa; 8 and 9, scored coil, Spur 

 Ranch; 10, ver}^ fine indented coil, lower Tularosa; 11, scored coil, 

 Tularosa Cave; 12, wave coil. Spur Ranch; 13, malleated surface 

 like beaten copper, Tularosa Cave ; 14 to 17, scored coil and bottom 

 spiral of vessel. Spur Ranch ; 18, lapped and pinched coil, lower Blue 

 River; 19 to 21, scored coil, Spur Ranch. Some of the small rude 

 offerings are ornamented with punch or finger-nail incisions. The 

 finest examples of coil work are found in the Tularosa Valley, one 

 unique specimen from this locality having a fret pattern excavated in 

 the surface. From the Stevens Cienaga on Spur Ranch, at a ruin 

 showing subterranean circular dwellings, there was discovered a 

 unique vessel in fragmentary condition, having two upward curving 

 handles, the ends of which are grooved. The vessel is dark brown 

 and unpolished. (PL 7, fig. 1, Cat. No. 231831, U.S.N.M.) 



BROWN WARE OF THE BLUE RIVER REGION. 



The common ware of the Blue River region is brown in color, the 

 paste rather coarse and weak and not sonorous in the finished product. 

 It is made from the volcanic clays occurring along the streams and ap- 

 pears to have had no temper. These clajs belong to the class called by 

 the potters fat clays, susceptible of high polish on the unbaked ware, 

 which was accomplished by the ancient potters by rubbing the sur- 

 face with smooth stones. Bowls preponderate, and these are invari- 

 ably a lustrous black on the interior, the process here being the same 

 as that employed by the potters of the upper Rio Grande, especially 

 at Santa Clara, where smothering in the fire in the presence of uncon- 

 sumed organic material fills the pores of the vessel with carbon, 

 producing an intense black. The process was known in Mexico and 

 may be observed in the grayish-black ware of Oaxaca. Some of the 

 pottery of the southern United States appears to have been made by 

 the same process. Brown ware, like that of the Blue River, is found 

 over the entire watershed of the Gila-Salt River, where it is typical, 

 but it crosses the great ridge into the Little Colorado drainage at 

 some points. A greater variety of forms than in other localities, how- 

 ever, is found in the ruins examined on the Blue River. The sole dec- 

 oration of the bowls is a band of impressions, like those on coiled ware, 



