Royal Society. 59 



of this excess in the supply of springs, he remarks that he was not 

 able to detect the presence of sea-salt in the water from the bottom 

 of the mine of Wheal Towan, which he examined in August 1828. 



" On the preserved bodies of aboriginal Peruvian Indians." By 

 Dr. Carter. Communicated by Dr. Granville. 



In this paper a description is given o* the bodies of a female and of 

 an infant, which were lately found in a state approaching to that of 

 mummies, at the foot of a hill forming a promontory near Arica, on 

 the western coast of Peru, and which were sent to England in 1827, 

 by Dr. Harnett, and are now deposited in the Museum of Natural 

 History at Haslar. A tradition exists that the desolate spot where 

 they were dug up was an ancient burying-ground of the aboriginal 

 inhabitants, although it is certain that no interments have taken place 

 in it since the first invasion of Peru by the Spaniards. The cloth which 

 formed the outer envelope of the mummy is of a dark brown colour, and 

 woven from the wool of the Camelas vicugna. The inner covering is 

 of a finer texture, and consists of white cotton, either woven or spun, 

 with blue stripes. The body has been compactly put together, and 

 doubled up in a square form, with the breast upon the knees j the 

 arms folded over the abdomen, and the face depressed, so as to occupy 

 as small a space as possible. It was strongly confined, by several 

 turns, with the bejuero, or tough and luxuriant creeping osiers, na- 

 turally twisted together, and knotted at regular rhomboidal intervals. 

 Within the case were contained a considerable quantity of leaves of 

 unknown plants remarkable in having lateral nerves, matte, heads of 

 Indian corn, pods of capsicum, and two small globular vases. The 

 skin of the body had the appearance of dried leather ; the hair was well 

 preserved, and was collected into long black platted tresses, doubled 

 over the chest. Many of the muscles remain, perfectly exsiccated, 

 but distinctly marked. There was also found in the same place a de- 

 tached head, apparently that of a female Indian ; and from the pecu- 

 liar care bestowed on its preservation, probably the wife of a cacique. 

 The hair is still glossy, and in good preservation, very black, lank, 

 and coarse, and firmly platted. The brain appears to have been ex- 

 tracted through the occipital foramen, and its place supplied by some 

 bituminous substance, filling the cavity of the cranium. The fillets 

 surrounding the head are terminated by knotted fringes, of differently 

 coloured worsted, constituting the quissa of the Peruvians ; — a species 

 of symbolical writing not used for Oral tradition, and, in this instance, 

 serving as a record of the history of the deceased. This head appears 

 to be much flattened posteriorly, and the frontal bone is also depressed ; 

 both of which are well known to be characteristic of the skulls of the 

 aborigines of South America ; and which were probably the result of 

 artificial compression applied to the head during infancy. The author 

 then enters into a disquisition respecting the funeral customs of the 

 Indians, their modes of embalming, and of manufacturing cloths for 

 interment. He concludes by a variety of statements illustrating the 

 desiccating influence of the atmosphere and soil in those regions, 

 by which the bodies of men and animals are preserved in a dry state, 

 somewhat analogous to that of the Egyptian mummies, for a very 

 considerable number of years. 



T2 " Experiments 



