CHICHEN ITZA. 11 



Within the site of the ancient city are several patches of broken rocky ground, upon 

 which no buildings have ever been raised, which have been carefully divided off from the 

 level plazas by what are now low heaps of stones, 10 to 20 feet wide, not always very 

 clearly denned. These are marked on the plan by a narrow blue line. It is difficult 

 to determine exactly the nature of the structures of which they are the remains. In 

 some places they seem to have been no more than enclosing walls, bounding the paved 

 roadways which connect the level plazas ; but often when the lines broaden out the 

 presence of roofing-stones and fragments of columns show that houses must have been 

 attached to them. The determination of the nature of these structures is rendered all 

 the more difficult from the fact that being nearly continuous they were formerly used 

 by the people of the hacienda to form the sides of enclosures for cattle. Indeed, the 

 surface of the ground has been so much disturbed that it is now frequently difficult to 

 distinguish between the remains of overturned recent walls and some of the smaller 

 much-ruined ancient buildings. 



The plan shows only the principal mounds and buildings, which could be easily 

 distinguished by their height. Numerous other buildings must, at one time, have 

 covered parts of the site included in the plan ; but, as they were not raised on high 

 foundations, it is difficult to trace their outlines, and their positions can only now be 

 guessed at from that of the fragments of masonry and columns. 



The chief features which distinguish the buildings of Chichen from those which I 

 have examined in Central America are the rounded corners and nearly perpendicular 

 sides of the raised foundations, and those which distinguish them not only from 

 Central-American ruins, but other ruins in Yucatan, are the free use made of columns 

 and the constant occurrence of serpent columns and balustrades. 



The north of Yucatan may be described as a raised coral-reef, covered here and there 

 with a thin coating of soil. All the surface-rock which I observed had the appearance 

 of coral limestone, but I was told in Merida that other formations are met with at no 

 great depth. 



The surface of the country, although flat, is by no means even. When the sun was 

 high in the heavens, the tree-tops (viewed from the raised terrace of the Casa de 

 Monjas) appeared to stretch to the horizon on a dead level; but in the early morning, 

 when the mist lay in the hollows and the sun's rays were almost horizontal, one could 

 observe the roughness of the actual surface, and this unevenness was further impressed 

 on one when jolting over the ill-made roads in a springless volan coche. 



In this northern country there are no surface-rivers, and the drainage is altogether 

 by percolation, the fresh water oozing out along the northern sea-coast. The water- 

 supply of the inhabitants is either from "aguadas," shallow pools which dry up almost 

 as soon as the hot weather sets in, or from " 'cenotes," deep holes in the limestone 

 rock, where the water is found at some considerable depth below the surface of the 



ground. 



c2 



