THE ANTLERS. 201 



This last came from Labrador, and I think grew upon a doe. 

 The other may be either a Nova Scotian or Newfoundland speci- 

 men. Between these two, which may be considered the ultra 

 extremes, the variety is endless." 



Another typical feature is, that almost always one, and gen- 

 erally both, of the brow tines, project downwards over the face, 

 reaching with the spurs on the palms, nearly to the end of the 

 nose, and very frequently obstructing the vision more or less. 

 Sometimes both the brow and the bez tine descend from the 

 same antler together, and are broadly palmated at the ends. 

 These palms generally stand vertically, or nearly so, or are com- 

 pressed laterally. 



I have in my collection four sets of male caribou antlers, and 

 in all, the antlers on each head are exceptionally alike, as will be 

 seen in the illustrations. 



The largest (Fig. 2) are tliree feet long each. The beams are 

 nearly cylindrical, or rather triangular, to near their ends, where 

 they have small palms bordered with spurs. Each brow tine 

 which descends over the face is seventeen inches long. They are 

 compressed laterally towards their ends to widths of three and 

 four inches respectively, the spurs of which approach each other 

 to within three inches, while they are apart ten inches at the 

 beams. Each in my collection, except the smallest, throws off 

 one or more posterior tines. These show an exceptional absence 

 of palmation, and much more resemble the antlers of the Euro- 

 pean variety than is visually met with in this country. A glance 

 at the illustrations of the antlers of the Reindeer of Europe 

 and of the Woodland Caribou will show this, but that the com- 

 parison may be the better understood I will give the measure- 

 ments of the antlers of the male wild Reindeer which I brought 

 from Lapland, shown in the illustration. (Fig. 7, p. 20-3.) The 

 right antler is thirty-eight inches and six lines long. On that 

 the brow tine is twelve inches and eight lines. It has two pos- 

 terior tines near the end of the beam, the first of which is eight 

 inches and three lines in length, and the other is six inches and 

 nine lines. There is no bez-tine on this antler. The left antler 

 is thirty-five inches and six lines long. The brow tine is nine 

 inches and three lines in length, and the bez-tine is thirteen 

 inches long. While these tines are flattened they are not pal- 

 mated, as is usually observed on the American variety. Al- 

 though the burrs are not entirely wanting tliey are very insignifi- 

 cant, as is always the case on both continents, and the pedicels 



