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11/ by maceration, both flesh and bones are assimilated to the mother dust. This is the reason why we find some skeletons in our grave yards. to be more decayed in ten years than those of the mounds which we have evidence to believe were buried from one to five hundred years. After a bone is so well compacted in clay as to be defended from water, a solvent in which no animal organization can long be preserved, I know of no reason why it should not last from one to five thousand years. There can be no doubt but that the bones of the Hyena and other animals, farmed in the caves of England, were covered several geet with clay by the subsidence of Noah's flood and subsequently defended from every species of invasion, except scientific, by stalagmites. The cultination of the Mounds in this country is opposed? to the preservation of their contained bones, by rendering them greater receptacles of water.

I suspect that you will find less interest in reading this long letter than I did in writing it. Consequently you will not be apt to trouble me again if you have reason to anticipate another as long. Be this as it may - I must claim from you some indulgence for such of its imperfections, at least, as were occasioned by the hurry in which I was obliged to write it.

These Sheet John Howard Payne Esq. New York per favour of B.?? Winchester Esq.