Virginia or Red Deer. 79 



Thos. Miskell, Wauseon, Ohio, says: "About ten years 

 ago (1895) was the last time I have heard of a deer in this 

 (Fulton) county." 



In 1869 a wild deer ran down the lane leading to the farm 

 of Thos. Bown, which was situated five miles south of Charles- 

 ton, in Clark Co. The boys started in pursuit, but the deer, 

 after leaping several fences, easily escaped. 



Dr. Howard Jones of Circleville. Ohio, reported deer abun- 

 dant in the Jackson Hills January 8, 1881. 



Wm. Leaming, of ^lilton Center, Wood Co., Ohio, killed 

 a deer in Jackson Township on Thanksgiving Day, 1884, and 

 in December, 1886, Thos. Alorrison killed another. As late 

 as the winter of 1904 a buck was killed in Jackson Co., Ohio, 

 and the head was sent to Cincinnati to be mounted. 



I have been asked the question : "If deer and elk shed their 

 horns each year, why are not more of the cast-off horns found 

 in the woods ?" I once saw an explanation of this, while hunt- 

 ing deer in Colorado. A huge elk had cast its horn on the edge 

 of a mesa. The rodents had gnawed it, as they generally do, 

 to wear down their incisor teeth. The sun had bleached and 

 cracked it. The rains had soaked its porous parts, and the 

 frost had disintegrated it. The crumbling fragments were 

 being overgrown and covered up, fast disappearing from sight, 

 suggestive of the fate of North America's largest and grandest 

 game animals. 



