eTK^XBON] MEASUKEMENT OF CLAY VESSELS. ,325 



Is more convex than the lower, or side on which it is intended the 

 vessel shall lie when not in use. In the ornamented white ware the 

 lo« er portion is usually red or brown. 



As all these clay fabrics are the work of North American Indians, it 

 is scarcely necessary for me to say that they are unglazed, a character- 

 istic, so far as I am aware, of all aboriginal pottery. 



Some of the specimens, especially of the black ware, show a smooth 

 finish, and may perhai)s, without violence to the term, be classed as 

 lustrous. This is not the effect of a varnish or partial glazing, but is a 

 polish produced generally, if not always, by rubbing with a polishing 

 stone. 



Although, as a rule, the paste of which the ware is made is compara- 

 tively free from foreign matter, yet many pieces, especially of the deco- 

 rated ware, when broken, show little whitish or ash colored specks. 

 These, when found in aboriginal pottery east of the Mississippi, have, 

 I believe, been without question considered as fragments or particles of 

 shell broken up and mixed with the paste. This may be correct in ref- 

 erence to the pottery found east of and in the Mississippi Valley, but 

 this whitish and grayish matter in the pottery of the Indians of New 

 Mexico and Arizona is in most cases pulverized pottery, which is 

 crushed and mixed with the paste. Black lava is sometimes crushed 

 and used in the same manner. 



The i^rincipal material used is a clay, apparently in its natural state, 

 varying in color according to locality. Although comparatively free 

 from pebbles or lumps of foreign matter, we detect in some of the coarser 

 specimens small particles of mica and grains of other materials, and in 

 one broken specimen the elytron of a small coleopterous insect. But 

 as a general rule, the paste appears to have been free from foreign matter. 



A slight glance at this large collection is suflBcient to show that the 

 potters worked by no specific rule, and that they did not use patterns. 

 While it is apparent that only a few general forms were adopted, and 

 that, with few exceptions, the entire collection may be grouped by these, 

 yet no two specimens are exactly alike ; they differ in size, or vary more 

 or less in form. The same thing is also true in reference to the orna- 

 mentation: while there is a striking similarity in general characteristics, 

 there is an endless variety in details. No two similar i>ieces can be 

 found bearing precisely the same ornamental pattern. 



Much the larger portion of the collection consists of vessels of vari- 

 ous kinds, such as bowls, cooking utensils, canteens, bottles, jars, pitch- 

 ers, cups, ladles, jugs, water vases, ornamental vessels, paint jiots, &c. 

 These vary in size from the large vase, capable of holding ten gallons, 

 to the little cup and canteen, which will contain less than half a pint. 

 The other and much smaller portion includes all those articles which 

 cannot be classed as vessels, such as images, toys, toilet articles, repre- 

 sentations of animals, &c. The collection can perhaps be most satis- 



