GREAT IMPORTANCE OF THIS CAVE. 155 



If we had been at all advised beforehand, we should 

 at least have carried the latter with us, but always 

 in utter ignorance of what we were to encounter, 

 our great object was to be as free as possible from 

 all encumbrances; besides which, to tell the truth, 

 we did some things in that country, among which 

 was the exploring of these caves, for our own satis- 

 faction, and without much regard to the claims of 

 science. The surface of the country is of transition 

 or mountain limestone ; and though almost invaria- 

 bly the case in this formation, perhaps here to a 

 greater extent than anywhere else, it abounds in fis- 

 sures and caverns, in which springs burst forth sud- 

 denly, and streams pursue a subterranean course. 

 But the sources of the water and the geological for- 

 mation of the country were, at the moment, matters 

 of secondary interest to us. The great point was 

 the fact, that from the moment when the wells in 

 the plaza fail, the whole village turns to this cave, 

 and four or five months in the year derives from this 

 source its only supply. It was not, as at Xcoch, the 

 resort of a straggling Indian, nor, as at Chack, of a 

 small and inconsiderable rancho. It was the sole 

 and only watering place of one of the most thriving 

 villages in Yucatan, containing a population of sev- 

 en thousand souls ; and perhaps even this was sur- 

 passed in wonder by the fact that, though for an un- 

 known length of time, and through a great portion 

 of the year, files of Indians, men and women, are 

 going out every day with cantaros on their backs, 



