gaah, blithering gaah.

which is better

"the bleached bones of the dead, scattered in small white patches among the darkened rocks gave mute testimony to their unavoidable presence."
or
"the bones of the dead, scattered in patches among the rocks gave testimony to their presence"

or better yet, neither.
This book is driving me demented. I shoud just stop reading it but perversely I'm dug in. Every sentence causes me to wince.
What has the English language ever done to deserve this?