JACKSON.] EUINS OF CHACO CANON PUEBLO ALTO. 447 



discovering a way up tho bluff. Scanning the walls closely I saw where 

 there had formerly been means provided for reaching the summit 

 through some of the great crevices which run up to the top, but they 

 now were inaccessible. Back of the Pueblo Chettro Kettle is an alcove 

 with perpendicular walls about one-third mile in depth and 300 yards 

 wide across its mouth. At the far end of this are the ruins of some 

 old structure which had been built upon a low slope of talus, and evi- 

 dently served as an approach up the bluff. Continuing around the alcove 

 to its mouth opposite where I entered, I saw some steps and handholds 

 cut into the rocli that seemed to offer the opportunity I was seeking; 

 climbing up a short distance over a slope of fallen rocks I found in the 

 sides of the crevice au irregular series of stair-like steps hewn into the 

 hard sandstone, each step about 30 inches long and 6 inches deep, the 

 two cut surfaces at right angles to each other. Upon each side of these 

 steps, in the steepest part of the ascent, are hand holds so hewn out as 

 to allow the hand to grasp them like the rounds of a ladder ; in the other 

 places they are sunken cup-like cavities, just large enough to admit the 

 fingers. Easily gaining the summit, 1 walked back over the bluffs, 

 ascending by terraces some 200 or 300 feet above the bottom of the 

 caiion, and then turning around the head of the alcove, my attention 

 was drawn to the stairway, shown in the accompanying drawing [plate 

 LXII], hewn in the smooth and almost vertical face of a bluff, parallel 

 with, and but a short distance back of that which forms the alcove. 

 There are 28 or 30 steps of about the same size as those already men- 

 tioned, accompanied with the hand-holds on both sides. At its foot was 

 probably a water-pocket to which it led, but immediately above there 

 are no indications of any ruins whatever. 



Interesting ruins, however, crop out in such unexpected places that 

 something of the kind may be hidden away in the alcoves and ravines 

 which penetrate the bluffs on all sides. From this point it was about 

 half a mile over the sandy sage-covered plateau to the ruins I had seen 

 from Pueblo Peiiasca Blanca. They are situated so as to command the 

 entire horizon. Away to the north stretches the great basin of the Eio 

 San Juan ; the summits of the La Plata Mountains glimmering faintly 

 in the distance. The Sierra Tunecha stretches across the entire western 

 horizon, while to the south above the elevated table lands appear the snow- 

 covered summits of the Sierra San Mateo. In the east the summits only 

 of the Jemez Mountains are'in view, the frosted crown of Pelado shining 

 above them all. This ruin is thus nearly midway and above all the 

 others — dominating them so far as its position is concerned. I endeav- 

 ored to obtain some information from Hosta as to its name among the 

 Navajos or Pueblos. At first he professed entire ignorance of its exist- 

 ence, and said that none of his people or any of the Navajos knew any- 

 thing of it. A day or two afterwards, however, while on the way home, 

 he modified this statement by saying that there was a tradition among 

 his people, of one pueblo among the others that was above them all, 

 not only in position but in strength and influence, and was called El Oap- 

 itan or El Jugador. He explains the latter name by saying that among 

 his people the gambler was regarded as a type of a superior people. 

 Whether or not this explanation was gotten up for the occasion, to ex- 

 plain something he knew nothing of, and yet did not wish to confess 

 his ignorance, a manner in which most of these traditions are gotten up, 

 it is impossible for me to determine ; but as a compromise I have called 

 the ruin Pueblo Alto. Eeferring to the plan in plate LX, we see that it is 

 in the usual rectangular form, the open court facing south and enclosed 

 by a low semicircular wall. The northern wall is 360 feet long and the 



