cases 100 feet below the soil, and without means of access except by
buckets let down through an opening in the rock, warm vapors issue at
early morn, but when the sun is high the water is cool and pleasant to
drink.

The name _senote_ is given to all these deposits of water, also to
some immense natural circular wells from 50 to 300 feet in diameter.
The walls are more or less perpendicular, generally covered with
tropical vegetation. The current in some is swift, but no inlets or
outlets are visible. The water is deliciously pure and sweet, much
better than that of wells opened by man in the same country. These
enormous deposits generally have a rugged path, sometimes very steep,
leading to the water's edge, but daring natives throw themselves from
the brink, afterward ascending by stout roots that hang like ropes
down the walls, the trees above sucking through these roots the
life-sustaining fluid more than a hundred feet below.

In the west part of Yucatan is a village called _Bolonchen_ (nine
wells), because in the public square there are nine circular openings
cut through a stratum of rock. They are mouths of one immense cistern,
if natural or made by hand the natives do not know, but in times of
drought it is empty, which shows that it is not supplied by any
subterranean spring. Then the people depend entirely on water found in
a cave a mile and a half from the village; it is perhaps the most
remarkable cavern in the whole country. The entrance is magnificently
wild and picturesque. It is necessary to carry torches, for the way is
dark and dangerous. After advancing sixty or seventy feet we descend a
strong but rough ladder twenty feet long, placed against a very
precipitous rock. Not the faintest glimmer of daylight reaches that
spot; but after a while we stand on the brink of a perpendicular