pening in the
earth, forming another of those extraordinary caves before presented to
the reader. The cura, the major domo, and the Indians called it a
senote, and said that it had supplied the inhabitants of the old city
with water. The entrance was by a broken, yawning mouth, steep, and
requiring some care in the descent. At the first resting-place, the
month opened into an extensive subterraneous chamber, with a high roof,
and passages branching off in every direction. In different places were
remains of fires and the bones of animals, showing that it had at times
been the place of refuge or residence of men. In the entrance of one of
the passages we found a sculptured idol, which excited us with the hope
of discovering some altar or sepulchre, or perhaps mummied figures.
With this hope, we sent the Indians to procure torches; and while Mr.
Catherwood was making some sketches, Doctor Cabot and myself passed an
hour in exploring the recesses of the cave. In many places the roof had
fallen, and the passages were choked up. We followed several of them
with much toil and disappointment, and at length fell into one, low and
narrow, along which it was necessary to crawl on the hands and feet,
and where, from the flame and smoke of the torches, it was desperately
hot. We at length came to a body of water, which, on thrusting the hand
into it, we found to be incrusted with a thin coat of sulphate of lime,
that had formed on the top of the water, but decomposed on being
brought into the air.

Leaving the cave or senote, we continued rambling among the ruins. The
mounds were all of the same general character, and the buildings had
entirely disappeared on all except one; but this was different from any
we had at that time seen, though we afterward found others like it.

[Engraving 4: Circular Edifice]

It stood on a ruined mound about thirty feet high. What the shape of
the mound had been it was difficult to make out, but the building was
circular. The following engraving represents this edifice, with the
mound on which it stands. The exterior is of plain stone, ten feet high
to the top of the lower cornice, and fourteen more to that of the upper
one. The door faces the west, and over it is a lintel of stone. The
outer wall is five feet thick; the door opens into a circular passage
three feet wide, and in the centre is a cylindrical solid mass of
stone, without any doorway or opening of any kind. The whole diameter
of the bu