230 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



exactly the same, except that it was a little smaller, 

 being only five yards in diameter. 



The fourth was the one which had just been dis- 

 covered, and which had excited the curiosity of the 

 mayoral. It was a few feet outside of a wall which, 

 as Don Simon said, might be traced through the 

 woods, broken and ruined, until it met and enclosed 

 within its circle the whole of the principal buildings. 

 The mouth was covered with cement, and in the 

 throat was a large stone filling it up, which the ma- 

 yoral, on discovering it, had thrown in to prevent 

 horses or cattle from falling through. A rope was 

 passed under the stone, and it was hauled out. The 

 throat was smaller than any of the others, and hardly 

 large enough to pass the body of a man. In shape 

 and finish it was exactly the same as the others, with 

 perhaps a slight shade of difference in the dimen- 

 sions. The smallness of this mouth was, to my 

 mind, strong proof that these subterraneous cham- 

 bers had never been intended for any purposes which 

 required men to descend into them. I was really at 

 a loss how to get out. The Indians had no me- 

 chanical help of any kind, but were obliged to stand 

 over the hole and hoist by dead pull, making, as I 

 had found before, a jerking, irregular movement. 

 The throat was so small that there was no play for 

 the arms, to enable me to raise myself up by the 

 rope, and the stones around the mouth were inse- 

 cure and tottering. I was obliged to trust to them, 

 and they involuntarily knocked my head against 



