946 Vo)/age of the Novara. 



The houses, constructed for the most part of sun-di-ied 

 bricks all along the coast of Peru, where rain is absolutely 

 unknown, and even the dew-deposit is trifling, are flat, barely 

 roofed in with tliin strips of cane, and consequently when 

 seen from the street have a very untidy appearance. Un- 

 fortunately these terrace-like roofs are likewise the sole re- 

 ceptacles for the refuse of the house, and any one who, in 

 order to get a better view, ventures to ascend one of the ad- 

 joining dazzling white sand-heaps, will long remember the 

 filthy but unique spectacle which greets his eye. 



Immediately outside of the suburb of Chimba, the desolate 

 nature of the country comes conspicuously into view. I next 

 walked to one of the nearest sand-hills, because I was assured 

 that there were numerous graves of queens to be found there, 

 as well as quantities of mummies. Owing to the extreme dry- 

 ness of the atmosphere, the skulls of the dead which here lay 

 scattered upon the surface of the soil, seemed as though they 

 were so many anatomical prej)arations. Even some dead 

 bodies of animals showed no symptoms of decomposition, but 

 had been perfectly dried. The peculiarity of the meteoro- 

 logical conditions, the extreme dryness of the atmosphere, 

 and the saline impregnation of the soil, have very much more 

 to do with these marvellous antiseptic appearances than any 

 indigenous skill in embalming the Indian corpses ; since, 



Chuquisaca, and Calamaca, probably the highest inhabited point of the earth's sur- 

 face, where a population of 800 souls live at an elevation of 13,800 feet above the 

 level of the sea. 



