HRDLICKAJ DISCOVERIES ATTRIBUTED TO EARLY MAN 47 
writer had the opportunity in two instances of observing what hap 
pens with human bodies abandoned on the surface of the ground. 
One was on the battlefield in the Yaqui-Mexican war and the other 
in Mongolia, where the dead are disposed of by being dropped on the 
ground in any convenient place and left to be devoured by animals. 
On both of these occasions, after a few days of exposure, the bones 
were 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 Mongolia, conditions \vere such that although traces of 
hundreds of recent surface burials were seen, it w T as impossible to 
find a single long bone sufficiently well preserved for purposes of 
study ; 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 
vening between the time when the remains were first exposed and 
when they were excavated. We know 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 
