384 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



from climbing over a mound, vs^hich disabled him for 

 some days. 



As these pages w^ill be sufficiently burdened, I 

 shall omit all the prehminary visits, and present 

 the long line of ruined cities in the order in which 

 we visited them for the purposes of exploration. 

 Chichen was the only place we heard of in Mer- 

 ida, and the only place we knew of with absolute 

 certainty before we embarked for Yucatan ; but we 

 found that a vast field of research lay between us 

 and it, and, not to delay the reader, I proceed at 

 once to the ruins of Kabah. 



The engraving opposite represents the plan of the 

 buildings of this city. It is not made from actual 

 measurements, for this would have required clear- 

 ings which, from the difficulty of procuring Indians, 

 it would have been impossible to make; but the 

 bearings were taken with the compass from the top 

 of the great teocalis, and the distances are laid 

 down according to our best judgment with the eye. 



On this plan the reader will see a road marked 

 " C amino Real to Bolonchen," and on the left a path 

 marked " Path to Milpa." Following this path to- 

 ward the field of ruins, the teocalis is the first ob- 

 ject that meets his eye, grand, picturesque, ruined, 

 and covered with trees, like the House of the Dwarf 

 at Uxmal, towering above every other object on the 

 plain. It is about one hundred and eighty feet 

 square at the base, and rises in a pyramidal form to 

 the height of eighty feet. At the foot is a range of 



