642 U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS ZOOLOGY GENERAL REPORT. 



half way between the tip of the sixth snag arises the fifth, the two forming a fork directed 

 upwards, the posterior hranch of the sixth snag usually a little longest. There are thus in the 

 normal horu four points, the two lower much longest, (ahout one-third the curve of the main 

 stem.) The third and fourth snags are smaller and nearly equal, the fifth and sixth still 

 smaller. The two lower snags curve rapidly upwards near their tip ; the third curves more 

 gently ; the others are nearly straight. 



Sometimes the horns are much more cylindrical throughout, having the proportions of the 

 Virginia deer. At others the palmation at the end is much greater ; this is especially the case 

 in No. , from the Yellowstone, where the flattening is more like that of the moose. This 

 specimen has nine points, the largest numher I have seen ; seven is not very unusual, the 

 seventh heing either a bifurcation of one of the terminal snags, or else springing from the forks 

 of two of them. 



The two hasal snags are generally very regular and symmetrical. In one specimen the upper 

 one on one side is bent abruptly downward. 



The young buck in its first horns has these a mere club-shaped spike, truncate at the end, 

 curved as in the adult, and without branches ; about eighteen inches long. 1 am not able, 

 with the materials before me, to trace them through their progressive stages of development. 

 One horn, possibly of the second year, is bifurcated at the tip ; in a young male of five points 

 it is the terminal fork that is wanting. In one instance, an elk kept in a park always repro 

 duced, for several years in succession, a mere spike or club on one side, the other horn attaining 

 its normal development. This was owing to an injury to the growing horn of that side in 

 youth. 



The size of the horns of the elk varies considerably. The largest I have seen measures ll\ 

 inches in" circumference above the burr, and 7 to 8 above the two basal snags. The longest 

 horn before me measures 54 inches along the curve of the posterior edge ; the chord of the 

 arc, 43 ; the extreme divergence of the tips of opposite horns, 30 to 36 inches. The heaviest 

 pair of horns weighs, with the skull, 38 Ibs. (the lower jaw wanting.) I am assured, however, 

 that much larger horns exist; some, indeed, of such size, that when inverted on their tips, a tall 

 man can walk beneath the skull without touching. 



Cuvier, in Ossemens Fossiles, (2d ed. Atlas II, pi. clxiv,) figures in part the succession of 



form in the American elk, from youth to maturity. In figs. 18, 19, 20, are represented horns 



of the elk with but one basal snag, instead of the two usually seen ; these, however, are 



horizontal, and were grown in confinement. In plate clxvi, fig. 35, is shown a horn sent to 



the museum from New York, by Milbert, and said to have been brought from the northwest 



coast by Lewis and Clark, The form of this is entirely different from the horn of an elk ; 



having, it is true, the snags anterior, but there is only one at the base, which is turned up so 



as to be parallel with the main stem. As Cuvier remarks, this is almost exactly the horn of 



Cervus hippelapkus, an Old World species, (from Java.) I have no doubt that the locality and 



collectors assigned are entirely erroneous, as Lewis and Clark make no mention of such horns, and 



nothing of the kind is to be seen in the numerous collections of horns from Lewis and Clark's 



localities, in the Smithsonian Institution and elsewhere. Milbert, as is well known, made many 



grievous mistakes in the localities of his American collections, such as assigning to New York 



