404 KEPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



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 has received a thin coating of 

 some mineral solution that gives a beautiful enamel-like surface, not 

 greatly inferior in hardness to the vitreous glazing of our potters. Upon 

 this surface, before burning, the color is laid, apparently with a brush. 

 In one or two cases the indented ware has a light gray surface coating 

 that on the broken edges has quite a perceptible thickness. 



A specimen collected at Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, has been coated 

 with a thin film of finely-powdered mica. This specimen has been orna- 

 mented by a series of slight grooves in a manner similar to much of 

 the i)ottery found in the Mississippi Valley. In the entire collection 

 there is but one specimen that shows evidence of haviDg been formed 

 in a basket. It was found in the lower part of the San Juan Basin. 



A few specimens are covered with painted figures on the inside, and 

 have also thumb indentations on the outside. 



Fragmentary pottery, of the same character as that collected in the 

 San Juan Valley, has been collected by government expeditions over an 

 immense area to the south and west. By far the richest find was that 

 made by Dr. E. Palmer at Saint George, Utah. The greater part of the 

 collection made is now in the Government Museum. I have therefore 

 been able to compare them with our own specimens, and find them al- 

 most identical in every respect. 



Cuts of a large number of specimens are given by Mr. Ewbank in Vol. 

 Ill, Pacific Railroad Report. They are chiefly from Zuni and the Colo- 

 rado Chiquito, and seem to present no features differing from the more 

 northern examples. Lieutenant Simpson also gives a number of speci- 

 mens in color in his report on "An Expedition to the Navajo Country." 



In order to give to those who have no opportunity to examine and 

 compare for themselves the various specimens of the ancient ware as 

 complete an idea of its appearance as possible, I have made a number 

 of restorations. The forms given are not in any sense imaginary, as 

 there are fragments in great numbers that illustrate every part of the 

 different vessels presented ; besides, there are entire specimens at hand 

 of every form given. I have restored from such small fragments sim- 

 ply because they happen to contain more elaborately-painted designs 

 than any of the entire vessels. The peculiarities of the various varie- 

 ties in form and color can be described more readily in conDection with 

 the examples given in the plates. 



PLATE XLIV. 



This plate is intended to illustrate the corrugated and indented ware. 

 Heretofore specimens of this class have been quite rare, as it is not made 

 by any of the modern tribes. 



Figure 1 represents one of a pair of large vessels exhumed from the 

 ruins of the " sixteen- windowed" cliff-house of the Rio Mancos. It 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 tem- 

 pered with coarse sand, and but slightly burned. The corrugated ap- 

 pearance is given by laying on strips of clay, in somewhat regular suc- 

 cession, 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 



