CHAP. vni. SCARCITY OF HUMAN BONES. 149 



committing the bodies of their dead or dying to its waters 

 even had such funeral rites prevailed, it by no means fpllows 

 that the bones of many individuals would have been preserved 

 to our time. 



A corpse cast into the stream first sinks, and must then be 

 almost immediately overspread with sediment of a certain 

 weight, or it will rise again when distended with gases, and 

 float perhaps to the sea before it sinks again. It may then 

 be attacked by fish of marine species, some of which are 

 capable of digesting bones. If, before being carried into the 

 sea and devoured, it is enveloped with fluviatile mud and 

 sand, the next flood, if it lie in mid channel, may tear it out 

 again, scatter all the bones, roll some of them into pebbles, 

 and leave others exposed to destroying agencies ; and this may 

 be repeated annually, till all vestiges of the skeleton may 

 disappear. On the other hand, a bone washed through a rent 

 into a subterranean cavity, even though a rarer contingency, 

 may have a greater chance of escaping destruction, especially 

 if there be stalactite dropping from the roof of the cave or 

 walls of a rent, and if the cave be not constantly traversed 

 by too strong a current of engulfed water. 



