Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/91

 in diameter. The walls are more or less perpendicular, generally covered with tropical vegetation. In some there is a swift current, 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. Daring natives throw themselves from the brink; afterward ascending by stout roots that hang like ropes down the sides; the trees above sucking through these roots the life-sustaining fluid more than a hundred feet below.

In the west part of Yucatan there 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, whether natural or made by hand the natives do not know; in times of drought it is empty; which shows that it is not supplied by any subterranean spring. The inhabitants then 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