Arctic travelers, the antiquity of the remains becomes evident."

It seems beyond doubt that in the majority of cases, especially as
regards the caves of the Western States and Territories, the
interments were primary ones, and this is likewise true of many of the
caverns of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, for in the three States
mentioned many mummies have been found, but it is also likely that
such receptacles were largely used as places of secondary deposits.
The many fragmentary skeletons and loose bones found seem to
strengthen this view.



MUMMIES.


In connection with cave burial, the subject of mummifying or embalming
the dead may be taken up, as most specimens of the kind have generally
been found in such repositories.

It might be both interesting and instructive to search out and discuss
the causes which have led many nations or tribes to adopt certain
processes with a view to prevent that return to dust which all flesh
must sooner or later experience, but the necessarily limited scope of
this preliminary work precludes more than a brief mention of certain
theories advanced by writers of note, and which relate to the ancient
Egyptians. Possibly at the time the Indians of America sought to
preserve their dead from decomposition some such ideas may have
animated them, but on this point no definite information has been
procured. In the final volume an effort will be made to trace out the