22 



very few specimens are found that are not painted, indented, or covered 

 with raised figures. Indeed, these ornamental designs are often, so ad- 

 mirable, and apparently so far in advance of the art-ideas of these people 

 in other respects, that one is led to suspect that they may be of foreign 

 origin. This suspicion is in a measure confirmed when we discover the 

 scroll and the fret stuggling for existence among the rude scrawlings 

 of an artisan who seems to have made them recognizable rather by acci- 

 dent than otherwise. It is not improbable, however, that the specimens 

 referred to are but rude copies of models designed by more accomplished 

 artists or procured from some distant tribe. There»is certainly no con- 

 clusive evidence that these i)eople ever came in contact with Europeans. 



The material used in the manuiacture of pottery is generally a fine 

 clay, (in which the country abounds,) tempered with sand or pulverized 

 shells. The modeling is done almost exclusively with the hand 5 no wheel 

 has been used, and no implement whatever, except for surface creasings 

 or inden tings. 



The thickness of the ware varies from |^ to J an inch. Lightness has 

 evidently been greatly desired, and vessels having a capacity of many 

 gallons are not more than | of an inch thick in any part. 



Nearly all of the vessels and fragments collected have been baked or 

 burned, but not to such a degree as to greatly change the color of the 

 clay. Most, if not all, of the painted pottery is glazed with a very thin 

 vetreous coating that gives a beautiful enamel-like sarface of great 

 hardness ; upon this the coloring-matter is laid, apparently with a brush. 

 With one or two excejitions the corrugated pottery is without the glaz- 

 ing, and in no instance contains painted figures. The peculiarities of 

 this variety can be described more readily by reference to the examples 

 in the plate. 



Figure 1 represents a large vessel obtained in one of the Mancos 

 cliff-houses, (Plate VI). It is of the corrugated variety ; has a capacity 

 of about three gallons, and was probably used for carrying or keeping 

 on hand a supply of water. It is quite light, not weighing more than a 

 common wooden pail, and is made of a light-gray clay tempered with 

 €oarse sand, and but slightly burned. The corrugated appearance is 

 given by laying on strips of clay, in somewhat regular succession, and 

 pressing them into place and indenting them with the thumb or a stick. 

 Whether a thin shell of clay is first constructed and the strips laid on 

 and pressed down so as to unite with it, or whether the vessel is built 

 up by the strips alone, cannot be determined, since the inside is per- 

 fectly smooth, excepting finger-marks, and the strix)S are so welded into 

 the general texture of the vessel that individual strips cannot be de- 

 tected beneath the surface when examined on broken edges. 



In the specimen figured the workman has begun near the center of 

 the rounded bottom and laid a strip in a continuous but irregular spiral 

 (see Fig. 3) until the rim was reached, indenting the whole surface 

 irregularly with the finger. Two small conical bits of clay have been 

 set in near the rim, as if for ornament. Other specimens have small 

 spirals, while others have scrolls, and still others very graceful festoons 

 of clay, (Figs. 2 and 2a.) A number of the more distinct styles of 

 indentation are given in connection with this .figure, (Figs. 3, 3a, 36, 3c, 

 and 3d.) 



Figure 4 is a bowd restored from a large fragment. It is i)ainted both 

 inside and out, and the designs are applied with rather more than usual 

 care. 



Figures 5, 5a, and ob are prominent among the ornamental designs. 

 I have corrected the drawing, but have introduced no new element. 



