THE YELLOWSTONE PARK 19 



The majority of Western hunters, like many 

 men of their class of all nationalities, are igno- 

 rant of any facts which do not occur beneath 

 their very noses. Questions on a subject which 

 they had not troubled to probe were dismissed in 

 the all-embracing formula " I don't know ! " Only 

 two of those whom I met had any definite answer 

 as to whether or no the bucks shed their horns, 

 and on many other matters of a like nature they 

 were hopelessly at sea. Old Yarnall was a pleasant 

 change, though neither he nor another good hunter 

 could tell me the exact time of year at which they 

 shed. He inclined to the belief that they dropped 

 about March, and was very firm on the point that 

 they did not shed annually, but, in his opinion, once 

 every second year. Dr. Canfield of Monterey declared 

 as early as 1858 that they shed annually : the old 

 bucks in October and the young ones earlier in 

 the year. But few shed horns are found, for they 

 rapidly disintegrate in the hot sun and are gnawed 

 by coyotes and other beasts. 



Yarnall told me that he once shot a buck, and 

 taking the horns to pull him over on to his side for 

 skinning, was surprised to find himself holding the 

 two loose horns in his hands. They were just ready 

 to fall off, and his grasp had detached them from 

 the skull. The new horns which had formed beneath 

 the cast-off shell were more or less soft, black and 

 shiny to look at, and covered with short hairs some- 

 thing like the velvet which is found on the newly 



