morris | RUINS ON THE MESAS 199 
opposed to this, one bowl (pl. 64, @) has an interior as white as 
well-cleaned kaolin. As has been stated above, this does not seem 
to be dependent on a surface slip. 
One globular bowl (pl. 70, a) is a deep, beautiful red. The paste 
is rather coarse and red all the way through, but the polishing has 
accentuated the redness of the surface. 
The bowl figured in plate 64, c, is of orange color in which the 
yellow is predominant. ‘This bowl once bore decorations which are 
now untraceable. 
There must have been much iron in the clay from which a con- 
siderable proportion of the pottery was made. Heat of different 
degrees has produced peculiar blotchings on several of the vessels. 
The neck of one, otherwise gray, is almost lemon yellow (pl. 63, d), 
and a red-orange cheek appears on the side of the vessel figured in 
plate 67, e. 
The red and orange sherds are of particular interest. They repre- 
sent most of the shapes present in the collection, besides many 
others the entire contours of which it is at present impossible to 
restore. The colored ware of the region will furnish beautiful and 
instructive material to future excavators. 
DECORATION 
From the standpoint of decoration the first fact to impress one 
is that of 62 vessels only 26 bear painted designs. In a typical col- 
lection from the cliffs, or from the lower La Plata, the proportions 
would be more than reversed. In fact, in the author’s collection 
of more than 200 specimens collected near the mouth of the La 
Plata there are only 5, excepting the coil ware, without decoration. 
In color the decorations merge from black through brown to red. 
The brown and red can not be considered to have resulted from 
a chemical alteration in a dye originally black. These colors are 
uniform over the entire surface of the dish; the black is permanent, 
while the red can be removed with a damp cloth. 
Several of the bowls found near the mouth of Long Hollow 
(Ruins Nos. 22 and 23) had their entire exteriors painted with a 
light-red substance, which comes off very readily in the presence 
of moisture. 
The decoration is in most cases crude, although fair skill is shown 
in two instances (pls. 64, a, and 72, e). 
With one exception the symbolism differs from that previously 
observed on Mesa Verde pottery. This exceptional symbolism ap- 
pears on a water bottle (pl. 70, 6). It consists of a hollow square 
with arms extending from the corners. The essential features of 
