Page:Field Notes of Junius Henderson, Notebook 4.pdf/130

 Rito de los Frijoles, N. M. Wednesday, Aug 23 ((sic)), 1910

Rather hazy morning, not so hot as yesterday. Spent some time looking over material taken from the ruins. In implements basalt of course predominates. A little tufa was used. A very few pieces of mica schist and at least one piece which looks like gneiss have been found. Some rubbing stones seem to be of quartzite and perhaps some are quartz. Thick flakes of selenite occur, which may have been used for ceremonial purposes, or perhaps for closing the holes or window openings of the rooms, as was done by the Pueblo Indians when whites first visited the Southwest. No nearby source for such materials is known and some or all must have come from far away. Some of the pottery may be nearly pure clay, some contains many small mica flakes, largely composed of mica, in fact, and in a few heavy pieces small quartz grains occur. The latter point clearly to tufa origin. Possibly the fine debris from weathered tufa was mixed with clay or some other substance to make the paste. The source of the clay and mica is undiscovered, but it