232 Bulletin of Laboratories of Denison University [Voi. xi 
construction and not to our material. A comfortable but ex- 
pensive method has been used where an adobe house has been 
completely sided, making a cool interior, and giving to the ex- 
terior the appearance of a frame structure. 
Thus it ma}/ be seen that while we have not the unlimited 
variety of building materials that are to be found in larger, older 
cities, yet we are not without a choice when the amount to be 
expended is commensurate with the requirements of the pro- 
posed building. 
To the above we may add a few notes upon building 
materials : 
Clay. Little has so far been done in the study of our clays 
but enough is known to make it clear that the territory is well 
supplied with clay for all purposes. The base of the brick so 
far made in the Rio Grande valley is what is locally called 
asequia clay, that is clay collected in the flood plain. There is 
the greatest diversity in different deposits due to the fact that 
at different stages of water material is brought in from different 
tributaries as thus in one case a clay high in clay base may be 
deposited while in another the alkalis may be dangerously high. 
Disintegration of the trachyte tufas make a very fusible clay 
while many of the clays are highly siliceous. The color is also 
variable even in adjacent beds so that the one may furnish the 
material for a light buff or cream brick and an adjacent one for a 
red or brown brick. In the neighborhood of Albuquerque, clays 
are derived from two sources. First, the flood plain or asequia 
clay beds and, second the mesa beds. The latter are very 
pulverant and crumble easily but have a dark color in local 
favor. The mesa clays, however, contain large quantities of marl 
in fragments of various size and as no pains is taken to scteen 
the clay the lumps of lime disintegrate on the addition of water 
and the bricks burst. This “popping ” is a constant source of 
disfigurement and will result in destroying some expensive 
buildings which, through the criminal neglect of the builders, 
have been constructed of such material. The mesa clay is 
sometimes used to temper the asequia clay and by this means 
the color is heightened. When screened to remove the marls 
