a blazing fire of brush-wood, as is still the practice of the
Maricopas and other sedentary tribes of the Gila. The most common was
building a little cone or dome of fuel over the articles to be baked
and firing; the most perfect was to dig or construct under ground a
little cist or kiln, line it evenly with fuel, leaving a central space
for the green ware, and slowly fire the whole mass.

Irrespective of the kind of fuel used, the baking by ash-burial made
the ware gray, cloudy, or dingy, and not very durable. Pottery burned
with sage or grease-wood was firm, light gray unless of ocherous clay,
less cloudy than if ash-baked, yet mottled. Turf and dung, although
easily managed, did not thoroughly harden the pottery, but burned it
very evenly; dead wood or spunk-cakes baked as evenly as any of the
materials thus far mentioned, and more thoroughly than the others.
Resinous or pitchy woods, while they produced a much higher degree of
heat, could be used only when color was unimportant, as they still are
used to some extent in the firing of black-ware or cooking pots. The
latter, while still hot from a preliminary burning, if coated
externally with the mucilaginous juice of green cactus, internally
with piñon gum or pitch, and fired a second or even a third time with
resinous wood-fuel, are rendered absolutely fire-proof, semi-glazed
with a black gloss inside, and wonderfully durable. Tradition
represents that by far the most perfect fuel was found to be cannel
coal, and that, where abundant, accessible, and of an extremely
bituminous quality, it was much used. The traces of little pit-kilns
filled with, cinders of mineral coal about many of the ruins in the
northwestern portion of the Pueblo region, coupled with the
semi-fusion and well-preserved condition of most of the ancient jars
found associated with them, certainly give support to this tradition.
Happily I have additional confirmation. When, two years ago, I was