286 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



ting a stronger feeling of admiration and wonder 

 than even the extraordinary cuevas, aguadas, and 

 senotes we had formerly encountered. These, too, 

 are called senotes, but they differ materially from 

 those before presented, being immense circular holes, 

 from sixty to two hundred feet in diameter, with 

 broken, rocky, perpendicular sides from fifty to one 

 hundred feet deep, and having at the bottom a great 

 body of water, of an unknown depth, always about 

 the same level, supposed to be supplied by subterra- 

 nean rivers. We had seen ranchos of Indians es- 

 tablished near these senotes, with a railing on one 

 side, over which Indian women were drawing up 

 water in little bark buckets ; probably the two great 

 senotes at this place were the inducements to the 

 foundation of the ancient city. 



The engraving that follows represents this senote 

 among the ruins of Chichen. Though wild enough 

 in its appearance, it had less of that extraordinary 

 regularity than the others we had seen. Those 

 were all circular, and it was impossible to get access 

 to the water except by means of a rope. This was 

 oblong, about three hundred and fifty feet in length 

 and one hundred and fifty wide. The sides were 

 between sixty and seventy feet high, and perpen- 

 dicular, except in one place, which was broken so 

 as to form a steep, winding descent to the water. 

 The view is taken from the edge of the water. 

 The path is evidently, to a certain extent, artificial, 



