232 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



elevated range, is a large hole or natural opening in 

 the rock, and during the w^hole of the rainy season 

 a torrent of v\^ater collects into a channel, pours 

 down this street, and empties into this hole. As 

 w^e were told, the body of water is so great that for 

 a week or ten days after the last rains the stream 

 continues to run ; and at the time of our visit it was 

 eighteen inches in diameter. The water in the 

 wells is always at the same level with that in the 

 hole. They rise and fall together ; and there is an- 

 other conclusive proof of direct connexion, for, as 

 we were told, a small dog that had been swept into 

 the hole appeared some days afterward dead in one 

 of the most distant wells. 



Doctor Cabot and I descended into one of the 

 wells, and found it a rude, irregular cavern, about 

 twenty-five feet in diameter ; the roof had some de- 

 gree of regularity, and perhaps, to a certain extent, 

 was artificial. Directly under the mouth the water 

 was not more than eighteen inches deep, but the bot- 

 tom was uneven, and a step or two beyond the wa- 

 ter was so deep that we could not examine it thor- 

 oughly. By the hght of a candle we could see no 

 channel of communication with the other wells, but 

 on one side the water ran deep under a shelving of 

 the rock, and here there were probably some crevices 

 through which it passed ; indeed, this must have 

 been the case, for this was the well in which the 

 dog had come to light. 



When we emerged from this well other business 



