February 1, 1898.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



Group III., and reach a maximum in Group IV., and 

 fall off far more rapidly toward the later f,'roup3 than 

 toward the earlier. It is important also that they are 

 more clear and conspicuous in Division c than in Divi- 

 sion ", and far more persistent — the lines 1-171*65 and 

 3819-75 being present in Group VIII., Division c. 



Complete and thorough as the Memoir is in every other 

 respect, it is impossible to escape the regret that it was 

 not accompanied by a well-choseu series of photographs of 

 typical spectra. \\e I'eel sure that if these could have been 

 supplied, they would have adiled greatly to the value of 

 Miss Maury's careful descriptions and to the information 

 which is to be derived from them. 



Great as is the evident value of this Memoir, it may be 

 taken as certain that we shall not be able to realize how 

 heavy a debt we owe to Prof. E. C. Pickering and Miss 

 Maury until it has been made the basis of the many 

 researches which will inevitably be founded upon it. Nine 

 years may seem a long time to have devoted to such an 

 inquiry, but the more the Memoir is studied the more one 

 will feel surprise, not that it has taken so long to prepare, 

 but that so much has been so quickly accomplished. 



ANCIENT RED DEER ANTLERS. 



By E. LrDEKKER, J!.A., F.R.S. 



WHATEVER may be the case with regard to its 

 applicability to the human race, there can be 

 no question that the phrase, " There were 

 giants in those days," is perfectly true when 

 the antlers of modern red deer are compared 

 with those of animals living a few centuries ago on the 

 Continent, or with the specimens that are from time to 

 time dug up from the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridge- 

 shire, or from the bogs of Ireland. Not only are such 

 ancient specimens much larger in respect of length and 

 girth of beam than any to be met with at the present 

 day, but they also greatly exceed the latter in respect 

 to the number of tines or points they carry, as also 

 in the complexity of the so-called cup in which the crown 

 or summit of the beam so frequently terminates. At the 

 time the big antlers of the English fens and Irish bogs 



crowned the 

 heads of 

 living ani- 

 mals, both 

 Britain and 

 Ireland were 

 either sti 11 

 connected 

 with the Con- 

 tinen t, or 

 their separa- 

 tion there- 

 from was an 

 event of com- 

 paratively re- 

 cent occur- 

 rence ; and as 

 the greater 

 part of the 

 country was 



still clothed with forest, the deer were able to wander 

 about as much as they pleased, and there was nothing to 

 prevent them attaining the maximum development of 

 which the species was capable. And on the Continent 

 the conditions of life were, if possible, still more favourable. 

 Contrast this with the mode of life of the deer of the 



Fig. 1.— Skull and Antlers of Ased Scotch 

 Red Deer. 



Scottish highlands at the present day. The so-called 

 "deer forests" are nothing but open moorland; and as 

 red deer are naturally forest-dwelling animals, this alone 

 is sutVicient to account for their relatively small size and 

 the small development of their antlers. When to this is 

 added the comparatively small size of the area on which 

 they are located, coupled with the effects of more or less 

 continuous in-and-in breeding, it is but small wonder that 

 the antlers of even the finest of Scotch deer are but poor 

 things when compared with those of their predecessors. 

 Some of our readers may perhaps be disposed to say that 

 this is due to the circumstance of the deer being shot 

 down at too early an age, before time has been allowed 

 them to perfect the full growth of their antlers, and that 



Fig. 2. — Antlers of Red Deer from an Irish Bog. 



if they were allowed to enjoy life a few years longer their 

 trophies would be fully equal to those of a past age. But, 

 as a matter of fact, this is not the case. After a certain 

 age the antlers of deer begin to retrograde or degenerate, 

 when they develop fewer points than at the prime of the 

 animal, and not unfrequently display various abnormalities. 

 And as Scotch red deer are frequently killed with degene- 

 rating antlers, it is manifest that this is not the cause of 

 the comparatively small size of these appendages. Such 

 a degenerating head, showing certain abnormalities, is 

 represented in our first illustration. Like the other 

 specimens figured, this example is in the collection of the 

 Viscount Powerscourt, at Powerscourt, County Wicklow, 

 and belonged to a very aged animal. Its history is some- 

 what curious. The stag was killed by poachers in 

 Ross-shire during the year 1844, and by them given to Mr. 

 Hay Mackenzie, father of the late Duchess of Sutherland. 

 By her Grace it was presented to Frederick, fourth 

 Marquis of Londonderry, by whom, in turn, it was given 

 to Lord Powerscourt in 18-57. 



English park red deer, from their more congenial sm-- 

 roundings and richer pasture, develop finer antlers than 

 those of their wild Scotch cousins, but even these bear uo 

 comparison to those of the stags of former ages. Although 

 larger antlers are still obtained on the Continent, these 

 are — for the most part, at any rate — inferior to those killed 

 years ago. It is true that in the Carpathians and Caucasus 

 magnificent heads are still fairly common. But these 

 belong to a variety known as the Maral or Caspian red 

 deer, in which the face is longer than in the typical race 

 of Western Europe, and the coat more or less distinctly 

 spotted with white in summer, while, as a rule, the crown 



