HRDLifKA] DISCOVERIES ATTRIBUTED TO EARLY MAN 47 



Avriter b.iul the opportunity in two instances of observing Avliat luip- 

 pens Avitli human bodies abandoned on the surface of the ground. 

 One was on the baltlelield in the Yaqui-Mexican war and the other 

 in INIongolia, Avhere the dead, are disposed of by being dropped on the 

 ground in any convenient phice and left to be devoured by animals. 

 On both of these occasions, after a few days of exposure, the bones 

 ■.vere found widely scattered, while those of the hands and feet 

 and the ends of the long bones had invariably been eaten. In some 

 instances limbs or large parts of limbs and even heads were seen 

 to have been dragged to a considerable distance. About Urga, the 

 capital of JNIongolia, conditions were such that although traces of 

 hundreds of recenf surface burials were seen, it was impossible to 

 find a single long bone sufficiently well preserved for pur]3oses of 

 stud}'; and this statement applies equally to other parts of the skele- 

 ton except the skull. Nothing reminding one of such conditions 

 exists in the Vero skeleton under consideration. The epiphyses, 

 unless broken, are perfectly preserved, and there is not a scratch or 

 a tooth mark on any of the bones. Moreover, so many parts are 

 preserved that the indications point to the original presence of the 

 whole skeleton. Some of the missing parts, as the spine, which de- 

 compose readily, have probably been lost through decay, while other 

 absent parts have almost surely been lost during the months inter- 

 A'ening between the time when ^ t remains were first exposed and 

 when they were excavated. We k low that at least three months 

 elapsed between the finding of the first and already bleached bone 

 that dropped out of the bank and the excavation for the rest of 

 the skeleton. 



As to the bones having been trampled and broken by animals, 

 nothing was found to suggest such an occurrence. There is no sign of 

 crushing and splitting. The fractures in all the long bones are trans- 

 verse, and they are sharp, fresh. This description applies equally 

 to the bones of the skull, and even the ribs show clean breaks and 

 not such as would take place in a fresh bone. The fractures in gen- 

 eral bear the characteristics of breaks due to stress, as might obtain 

 within the strata, not those due to direct violence. The pelvic bones 

 and scapula alone look as if they might have been damaged by tramp- 

 ling, but their condition might have equally resulted from pressure 

 within the deposits. Such defects are well known from ordinary 

 older burials. 



Finally, there is no trace on the bones of the effects of weathering. 

 There is no sign of scaling of the surface or of longitudinal splinter- 

 ing, such as takes place under exposure. The bones are smooth, and 

 what remains of them is in a perfect state of preservation. These 

 facts oppose very conclusively the theory that the body from which 

 the bones came lay on the surface of the ground, where it suffered 



