58 



BULLETIN 87, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Fig. 125.- 



-DBSIGN FROAt A BOWL FROM 



Bh:e. 



WOOD. 



In this region the chief demand for large masses of wood was for 

 house beams, and whenever possible straight-growing trees were 



selected, the cottonwood wherever 

 it was to be had answering the 

 purpose in most cases, formerly 

 as at present. The most available 

 tree in the mountains was the pine, 

 the felling of which offered little 

 difficulty when fire was used. 



The cliff-dwellings of the Gila- 

 Salt drainage were of one story, 

 the roof being formed by the over- 

 hang of the rock, and for this rea- 

 son the beams, poles, and masses 

 of branches, grass, etc., of the 

 open-air pueblos were not always 

 required. Occasionally, however, 

 a rough post of juniper, quite irregular in shape, is planted in a wall. 

 Smaller wands and poles for roof structures, etc., were cut along 

 the streams, the method apparently 

 being to bend over the sapling and 

 scrape and saw with a sharp edge 

 spall or chipped implement, the 

 cutting being expedited by the 

 straining of the wood fibers at 

 the point of bending. This process 

 was operated on the other side of 

 the sapling which could then be 

 twisted or worked apart. Butts 

 of rods remaining in the caves 

 seem to indicate this method of 

 work. 



The twigs were removed from the rods intended for basket rims and 

 saplings were cut for bows, etc., by means of the stone knife, and the 



rods were subsequently ground 



down on abrading stones, but 



rarely leveled, the usual result 



being rounded projections over 



the insertions of the twigs, and, 



in the case of the bow, giving 



Pig. 127.— Design from a bowl from Blue, greater Strength and durability. 



A material of the greatest usefulness was found in the flowering 



stalks of yucca, dasylirion, and agave, which are light, strong, and 



of good length, especially the agave flower stalk. The dasylirion 



Fig. 126. — De.sign from a bowl from 

 Blue. 



