depth according to the irregularity of the bed, and in
general not exceeding four or five feet. The source of the water is
considered a mystery by the inhabitants, but it seems manifest that it
is derived from the floods of the rainy season. The village is
encompassed on three sides by hills. On the upper side of the plaza,
near the corner of a street running back to the elevated range, is a
large hole or natural opening in the rock, and during the whole of the
rainy season a torrent of water collects into a channel, pours down
this street, and empties into this hole. As we were told, the body of
water is so great that for a week or ten days after the last rains the
stream continues to run; and at the time of our visit it was eighteen
inches in diameter. The water in the wells is always at the same level
with that in the hole. They rise and fall together; and there is
another conclusive proof of direct connexion, for, as we were told, a
small dog that had been swept into the hole appeared some days
afterward dead in one of the most distant wells.

Doctor Cabot and I descended into one of the wells, and found it a
rude, irregular cavern, about twenty-five feet in diameter; the roof
had some degree of regularity, and perhaps, to a certain extent, was
artificial. Directly under the mouth the water was not more than
eighteen inches deep, but the bottom was uneven, and a step or two
beyond the water was so deep that we could not examine it thoroughly.
By the light of a candle we could see no channel of communication with
the other wells, but on one side the water ran deep under a shelving of
the rock, and here there were probably some crevices through which it
passed; indeed, this must have been the case, for this was the well in
which the dog had come to light.

When we emerged from this well other business offered. Having little or
no intercourse with the capital, this village was the first which
Doctor Cabot's fame had not reached, and our host took me aside to ask
me in confidence whether Doctor Cabot was a real medico; which fact
being easily established by my evidence, he wanted the medico to visit
a young Indian whose hand had been mangled by a sugar-mill. Doctor
Cabot made some inquiries, the answers to which led to the conclusion
that it would be necessary to cut off the hand; but, unluckily, at the
last reduction of our luggage he had left his amputating instruments
behind. He had a hand-saw for miscellaneous use