AUTUMN 



60 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



wonderful pearling are so far unrivalled. The animal was 

 killed in Montana in 1883. 



What becomes of these wonderful growths ? Why is not 

 the forest littered with them, since they are dropped and re- 

 newed each year ? 



First, the forest is littered with them to some extent in 

 districts where the Elk abound. In several parts of the West 

 I have seen small garden fences made of the cast-off antlers, 

 and I am told that in California it was common to see a rotted 

 survey stake replaced by a pile of Elk horns, which were the 

 handiest and most abundant substitute. But still their num- 

 bers are nothing compared with what one might expect. If 

 they were as durable as stones they would be as plentiful as 

 stones in an ordinary Montana valley. The explanation is 

 that they are easily destroyed by the elements and are habit- 

 ually preyed on by Mice and other rodents. In all the thou- 

 sands of shed Elk horns that I have picked up or seen in the 

 West, I do not think I ever saw one that was not more or less 

 gnawed by Mice, Rats, Gophers, or Porcupines. 



The skull of the Elk may resist the weather for twenty 

 years, the horns may crumble in half that time. As Caton 

 long ago showed,-* while bone is one-third animal matter or 

 gelatine, the antler substance is "about 39 parts animal 

 matter and 61 parts earthy matter of the same kind and pro- 

 portions as is found in common bone"; besides which the inner 

 structure of the antler is exceedingly porous or cellular. " Soon 

 ripe, soon rotten," is a North-of-England proverb that has a 

 bearing on this case. 



If the antler is the life-aim of the bull Wapiti and the sole 

 end of the antler is the battle, then is the autumn in his years 

 of perfect prime the crowning epoch of the great stag's life. 

 Then from the mountain, whither he retired last spring, he 

 descends to the level of the cows. 



Fat and well-favoured is he become. A new blue coat 



*® Antelope and Deer of America, 1877, p. 169. 



