RATHER TALL

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2769, 12 April 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

RATHER TALL

Captain Thompson, of the schooner Challenger, describes a recent visit to the battle field of Tarapaca, where the Chilians and Peruvians met on November 17, 1879, and the Peruvians, after losing 4,000 men were forced to retreat, leaving their dead unburied. "In any other country," he says, " these unburied corpses would have been reduced in a few weeks to skeletons by wild animals or the elements, but for over a 100 miles on either side of the battle ground there is not a spear of grass. There art;, consequently, no wild animals, and the bodies remain untouched by them. The soil, too, is strongly impregnated with nitrate of soda, and this, in connection with the hot, dry atmosphere, has converted men and horses into perfect mummies. Seen on a bright moonlight night, as I first saw it, the battle appeared to have been fought a day or two ago, the colors of the uniform being still bright and the steel of their weapons untarnished. Inspected by daylight, a curious phenomenon is observed. The hair of the bodies ot the men has grown since deith to a length of from 2ft to 4ft, and the tails of the cavalry horses are now so long that, if alive, they would trail far behind on the ground.