282 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



matter, which, in the perfect osseous structure, con- 

 stitutes about thirty-three parts in the hundred. 



On the upper part of the left tibia there is a swell- 

 ing of the bone, called, in surgical language, a nodey 

 an inch and a half in length, and more than half an 

 inch above the natural surface. This morbid con- 

 dition may have resulted from a variety of causes, 

 but possesses greater interest on account of its ex- 

 treme infrequency among the primitive Indian pop- 

 ulation of the country. 



On a late visit to Boston I had the satisfaction 

 of examining a small and extremely interesting col- 

 lection of mummied bodies in the possession of Mr. 

 John H. Blake, of that city, dug up by himself from 

 an ancient cemetery in Peru. This cemetery lies on 

 the shore of the Bay of Chacota, near Arica, in lat- 

 itude 18" 20' south. It covers a large tract of 

 ground. The graves are all of a circular form, 

 from two to four feet in diameter, and from four to 

 five feet deep. In one of them Mr. Blake found 

 the mummies of a man, a woman, a child twelve or 

 fourteen years old, and an infant. They were all 

 closely wrapped in woollen garments of various col- 

 ours and degrees of fineness, secured by needles of 

 thorn thrust through the cloth. The skeletons are 

 saturated with some bituminous substance, and are 

 all in a remarkable state of preservation. The 

 woollen cloths, too, are well preserved, which no 

 doubt is accounted for, in a great degree, by the ex- 

 treme dryness of the soil and atmosphere of that 

 part of Peru. 



