12 CHICHEN ITZA. 



These 'cenotes are very numerous ; some of them are open to the air, and have steep 

 or perpendicular sides, as is the case in the two 'cenotes at Chichen Itza (Plate II.). In 

 others the water can only be reached by long underground passages and caverns at 

 considerable distance from the surface. In the 'cenote at Bolonchen, described by 

 Stephens, the water is stated to be 450 feet below the level of the ground. 



It is sometimes asserted that 'cenotes are openings marking the passage of under- 

 ground rivers, and that the current is easily discernible ; but this did not appear to be 

 the case at Chichen, where I was not able to make out any trace of current, and it 

 seems probable that many of the 'cenotes are merely receptacles of surface-drainage and 

 percolation from the immediate neighbourhood, and have no distinct outlet. 



On arrival at the ruins I found the whole site under somewhat dense vegetation. 

 But this vegetation was of a very different character from that which clothes the 

 Central-American ruins. Partly owing to the small depth of the sail and partly to 

 the clearings made for food-plantations, there was an absence of forest-trees, and the 

 wood resembled overgrown copse-wood in England rather than a tropical forest, with, 

 however, this difference — that the saplings grew very close together and the numbers 

 of lianas and climbers sometimes formed it into a dense jungle, and clearing was 

 made the more difficult owing to the thorny stems both of trees and creepers. 



A portion of the site we cleared entirely of all vegetation by burning the felled trees 

 and shrubs ; in other parts we found it to be an economy both of time and labour 

 merely to clear away the undergrowth thoroughly and heap it together and burn it 

 when dry. 



As the dry season progressed, the clearing and burning of bush by the people of 

 Piste, in preparing their corn-plantations, enabled me to note some of the smaller and 

 more distant mounds, and to form a better idea of the extent of the ancient city. 



