“After making sure that he had entirely gone in and, figuratively speaking, closed the door after him, I took his measurements from observations on certain stone projections he had passed. He was not less than sixteen and a half feet long. Deciding that I had had quite enough adventure for one morning, I bade the spot adieu and went home to lunch.”
CHAPTER VII
THE SACRED WELL
YUCATAN has a peculiar geological structure. The soil is usually very thin, and beneath it is porous limestone rock. Owing to the thinness of the soil, vegetation, prolific as it is, does not grow high and the few large trees grow only where the bed-rock has in some way been broken, thus providing depth of soil for the roots.
The limestone foundation is of minute sea-shells, for it was all once sea-bottom; and this porous rock is very subject to erosion, so that the whole peninsula is honeycombed with subterranean streams and channels and caves, while every here and there are natural wells, or cenotes. Some, like the two greater wells at Chi-chen Itza, are very wide and deep; others are tiny. Nowhere is the elevation above sea-level great, and many of these natural wells extend down to sea-level and are fed by seepage from the sea. Others, of course, are partly fed by surface drainage and nearly all provide an inexhaustible supply of water. Indeed, I believe that it would be practically impossible to provide any pumping equipment which would drain the huge Sacred Well.
In the case of nearly all these wells, except those very close to the sea-coast, the water does not contain salt or minerals evident to the taste, as the limestone rock is a perfect filter. The water, however, as might be expected in this tropical setting, is fairly alive with animalcula. One soon becomes accustomed to such fleshy nourishment in his beverage and ceases to find it unpleasant.
In the dry season the cenotes provide virtually the only water-supply, because there are almost no lakes or surface streams. Owing to the porosity of the rock, moisture sinks into the earth very rapidly and in only a little while after a heavy rain the ground is again quite dry. To-day, as in ancient times, life is dependent upon the natural wells and it is easy to see why the city of Chi-chen Itza was located as it is. On every hacienda, the manor is built adjacent to a cenote. So, too, are the villages. While cenotes are not rare, still they are not common enough to provide a convenient water-supply for the majority of the populace.
In Mérida the wealthy inhabitants have cenotes upon their grounds, providing delightful places to bathe. And around them many pretty grottos or underground chambers have been hollowed out from the rock by artificial means, where it is always cool and where the families resort in the heat of the day. Cenotes are often found in the jungle and sometimes are ideal places for hunting. Where the well has sloping walls or a reasonably good path down to the water, it is sure to be patronized by wild animals of all kinds. Many cenotes contain fish, especially catfish.
One device employed in olden times and still used to augment the water-supply is a shallow reservoir, or cistern, called a chultun (stone calabash), which fills with water in the rainy season and tides over, to a certain extent, the arid months. But it is usually a dry hole before the dry season is far advanced. These rain-cisterns are of all sizes and shapes. There are a few ruined cities, like Uxmal, which had no cenotes or other natural water-supply and which must have depended solely upon the impounded water of many chultuns.