Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-01-22
From Chambers Journal.
DESERT OF ATACAMa.

A traveller through the highlands Of Peru found
lately in the Desert of Atacanla the dried remains
of an assemblage of human beings, seated in a
semicircle rs when alive, and staring into the
burning waste before them They had not been
buried here life had not departed before they
thus sat around but hope was gone the invader
at hand and, no escape they had come
hIther to die. They still sit immoyabe in that
dreary desert dried like nummies by the
effect Of the bot air, they still keep their posi-
ton, sitting up rs in solemn council, while over
that dread Areopagus silence breeds everIas.-
ingly.
The scene is described by Dr. Ried, in a let
ter from Valparaiso TO friend at Ratisbon. to
whom be sent some of the mummies for dispo-
sition in the museum OF the Geological Miner
alogical Society of that city, where they now
The letter is dated from the old Peruvian
fortress at Lasane on the skirts of the Desert Of
Atacama, and Is as follows =
As l announced to you in my last am now
on the road to Suere, he capital Of Bolivia
Four days after our departure from Valparaiso
we reached Cobiia, from which The road leads
for one and a half or two lesgues (twenty leagues
10 a degree) along the coast; it then turns to-
wards the east. The snore consists OF coarse
sand. and is bespread with fragments of rock,
which the frequent earthquakes have shaken
down from the overhanging cliffs The first
mountaineering, which runs parallel with the
sea at distance of almost loco PAGES, rises TO "A
height of about 1000 feet. The way up leads
through steep ravine the bed Of an autcdiiu-
Wan and in four, or four and half hours.
4 Il. IL
Atacama- l viii not venture to give 4 discrip-
ton Of this waste. You may Imagine. however.
vast undulating plain, whereon no trace of life
Is to be seen, where no insect shows itself where
no plant grows, where the stiffness Of the crave
Is only broken by the moaning of the wind where
the surface Of the earth consists of a calcareo1s
InaSs-of which salt and saltpetre, and similar
products. shine forth abundautlv-where fine
dust and a glaring retraction OF the suns rays
make ii painful to look around and where final
ly, here and there, as the sole proof that man
had once been here, the mumnies Of mules, Of
horses, and Of human beings, are seen dried and
undeccmrcscd-e yea may have faint pie,
ture Of Atacama.
After four days march l come TO Cala5na, a
colony in the midst Of an immense norass. whore
the traveller gives the mules water, and allows
them to rest. One cannot possibly imagine any
thing mere dreary than this place The marsh
contains sort 81 bulrush, and liquid which
has nothing IN common with water, except thar
1t IS liquid, and which It Is almost impossible to
sirink--and yet We must drink. although it pro-
duces diarrhoea- This uor,lss - the source of ::
river, which. nearer the coast, aud under tie ap-
pellatien ofrNoa. forms the boundary between
Bolivia and Peru. Ii little channels are made
il the banks Of this river their bed soon becomes
petrifed and grass, bulreshes, and whatever
vegetation may be near Is covered with crust
of lime. In two days time reached Cbiu-
Chiu, an ancient Peruvian burying-plaee and
here, N a. extensive half moon sit men. women
and eAildren-irom 500 to 600 in nurnber-au
in the same attitude, ond gazing vacantIy before
theui-some fallen dowr, some partly covered