[50] The Mimbres formerly had many more fishes than at present, and Bartlett records that his men often brought in fine trout for his camp. These, with turkeys, quail, deer and antelopes, led him to say that his “fare might be called sumptuous in some respects” (_op. cit._, p. 236). [51] Fishes are sometimes represented on Keresan pottery. [52] As elsewhere mentioned in this paper, one of the bird figures (fig. 25) has a fish in its mouth. [53] 17th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., Part 2, figs. 277–355. [54] Ceremonially, every piece of pottery is supposed by the Hopi to be a living being, and when placed in the grave of the owner, it was broken or killed to let the spirit escape to join the spirit of the dead in its future home. There is no evidence that the Sikyatki mortuary pottery was purposely broken when deposited in the grave, and probably no need of perforating it to allow free exit of the spirit, for the broken encircling line, “life gateway,” absent in Mimbres pottery, but almost universally present in ancient Hopi pottery, answered the same purpose, in their conception. [55] Following Hopi analogies, where these geometrical figures frequently occur with animals they may have the same symbolic meaning as when alone, and represent shrines or prayer-offering houses. [56] Unfortunately there are few decorated vases represented in the collection, but exploration in the field may later bring many of these to light. [57] The author brought to Washington fragments of a food bowl from the ruin near Byron Ranch, identical with Casas Grandes ware. [58] We must look to renewed explorations to shed light on this and many other questions which the paucity of material is yet insufficient to answer. [59] In dry seasons the river flows under the superficial soil at a varying depth, but in floods it follows the surface bed. [60] As the author has pointed out in several articles, the abandonment of Southwestern ruins is due to a variety of causes, chief of which are changes of climate. It is often due to other more local causes, as attacks by hostiles, salinity of soil, poor site for defence, presence of wizards, contagious diseases, etc. [61] The designation “pueblo ruins” sometimes applied to any cluster of ancient house walls in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, should be restricted to a well-defined architectural type which originated and reached its highest development in a small area in New Mexico. It was eventually carried by colonists in all directions from the center of origin, becoming intrusive as far west as the Hopi, Zuñi, and Little Colorado. The boundaries of this type never extended into Mexico in prehistoric times. The ruins along the Mimbres are not community houses of terraced character and should not be called pueblo ruins.