142 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I47 



lightly but his lithographer chose to ignore it (pi. 39, left and right). 

 The diff below is more precipitous but perhaps Chaco stair builders 

 started at the top and worked down! 



Jackson's stairway is one of the best, but what was its purpose? 

 The diverse "roads" are equally beyond convincing explanation. 

 There is the broad pathway extending southeast from Pueblo Alto 

 with 10- to 20-foot-wide hammer-battered steps at every ledge (pi. 40, 

 lower) and a pecked groove throughout much of its length (pi. 40, 

 middle) ; there is the retaining wall edging a 30-foot cliff in a rincon 

 back of Chettro Kettle and a stairway at the end of the trail. There 

 is another step series across the canyon, irregular and cramped, 

 and a cleared path from rimrock toward Tsin Kletzin (pi. 40, upper). 

 There is the magnificent stairway overlooking Hungo Pavie and a 

 conspicuous "road" dug through a sand ridge south of The Gap. 

 Each was a prodigious undertaking of which the Late Bonitians or 

 their contemporaries were thoroughly capable but each remains a 

 mystery. 



