Mr. P. F. Bellamy on two Peruvian Mummies. 95 



antennis atris, thorace fere hexagono angulis anticis rotundatis, 

 posticis abrupte truncatis, disco subconvexo punctato, lateribus 

 parum depressis et marginatis, elytris sulcato-punctatis, quatuor 

 maculis rubro-miniatis insignitis corpore pedibusque nigris. 

 The above insect was lately received from the Ashantee country, 

 and was sent to me by Capt. Parry of Cheltenham for description. 



From the number of rare species already described, some faint idea 

 may be formed of the richness of African entomology. I regret to 

 add that several others of equal rarity are passed by, as being too 

 mutilated for description. Various new types of form have also lately 

 reached me from the country of the Ashantees as well as the Gold 

 Coast ; the most remarkable of them at a future time I propose to 

 publish. 



August 25, 1842. 



XVI. — A brief Account of two Peruvian Mummies in the 

 Museum of the Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society. 

 By P. F. Bellamy, Surgeon, of Plymouth*. 



[With a Plate.] 



These interesting relics were brought to England by Captain 

 Blanckley of the Royal Navy, who in the year 1838 presented 

 them to the Society under the incorrect denomination of Pe- 

 ruvian Mummies. Of the exact locality whence they were 

 procured I am at present unable to furnish information ; but 

 on presenting them, Capt. Blanckley stated to me in conver- 

 sation, that he exhumed them himself from an elevated tract 

 of land in the mountainous district of Peru, but at a consider- 

 able distance from the lake Titicaca. He also informed me 

 that such remains were very abundant there, that they were 

 found very near the surface, the light sandy soil having been 

 removed by the wind, so as to expose many of them (a cir- 

 cumstance which led to their discovery), and that each was 

 observed to have an upright posture in the soil, and to have 

 under it a piece of matting f. 



Each mummy (for so, in order to avoid a confusion of terms, 

 I will continue to call them,) presented the appearance of a 

 rudely shaped oval bundle, secured by numerous lashings of a 

 coarse rope, made of a kind of flag or rush, passed two or three 



* Read to the Zoological Section of the British Association, Aug. 3, 1841. 



f One of the specimens was packed in a tin case with some of the sand 

 taken from the spot ; it is impregnated with marine salts to such an extent 

 as to impart to the whole a strong smell somewhat resembling iodine ; so 

 that there is reason to believe that the preservation of the remains is acci- 

 dental, and principally attributable to the presence of these extraneous anti- 

 putrescents. 



