ch
patience. Sometimes nothing was found for weeks. Small mounds gave
results as good as, if not better than, some large ones. In shape they
are more or less conical, flattened at the top; some are oblong, a few
even rectangular. The highest among them rose to twenty or twenty-five
feet, but the majority varied from five to twelve feet. The house
walls inside of them were from eight to sixteen inches thick.

The pottery which was excavated here may be judged by the accompanying
plates. It is superior in quality, as well as in decoration, to that
produced by the Pueblos of the Southwest of the United States. The
clay is fine in texture and has often a slight surface gloss, the
result of mechanical polishing. Though the designs in general remind
one of those of the Southwestern Pueblos, as, for instance, the cloud
terraces, scrolls, etc., still most of the decorations in question
show more delicacy, taste, and feeling, and are richer in colouring.

This kind of pottery is known only from excavations in the valleys of
San Diego and of Piedras Verdes River, as Well as from Casas Grandes
Valley. It forms a transition from the culture of the Pueblos of
Arizona and New Mexico to that of the Valley of Mexico, a thousand
miles farther south. In a general way the several hundred specimens
of the collection can be divided into four groups:

(1) The clay is quite fine, of white colour, with a slightly
grayish-yellow tinge. The decorations are black and red, or black
only. This is the predominant type, and may be seen in Plates I. and
II.; also Plate III., _a_.

(2) Of a very similar character, but somewhat coarser in texture, and
heavier. See Plate III., _b_ to _g_, and Plate IV., _f_ Both these
groups include variations in the decorative designs, as may be seen
in the rest of Plate IV.

(3) Brown pottery with black decorations. See Plate V., _a, b, c_,
and _e_.

(4) Black ware.

Here follows a condensed description of the more important specimens
shown in the plates:

PLATE I

Heights: _a_, 18.5 cm; _b_, 15.2 cm; _c_, 16.2 cm; _d_, 18.8 cm; _e_,
11.3 cm; _f_, 8.5 cm.

_a_, particularly graceful in outline and decoration, is a
representative type that is often found.

_c_, from Colonia Dublan, is made in the shape of a horned toad,
the lizard so familiar to anyone who has visited the Southwest of
the United States. The head with its spikes, and the tail as well,
are well rendered; the thorny prominences of the body