200 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



the onter cuticle, or velvet, is called fraying ; and 

 the huntsmEin, in leading on his hounds upon a 

 hart of many " tines," judges of his size and 

 strength by the fraying-post — the height of the 

 tree against which he has been butting and rub- 

 bing his horns to separate the outer covering. 

 The horns, when the velvet is detached, are now 

 perfect. It is after this that the stag seeks the 

 female in the depth of the forest ; and now it is 

 that, in encountering his rivals, fierce contests 

 ensue. They dart against each other with great 

 fury^ take no repose, and in a very few weeks be- 

 come quite exhausted. In the museum of the 

 College of Surgeons there are two superb sets of 

 antlers entangled and w^edged together : they be- 

 longed to two males, which had struck so fiercely 

 against each other that they could not withdraw 

 their horns, and being thus strangely locked to- 

 gether, they starved, and were found dead. The 

 stag is a very different animal, in regard to 

 strength, at different seasons of the year. He 

 feeds, too, on different herbage, sometimes pre- 

 ferring the broom and heath ; at another season 

 he resorts to copses, springs, and corn fields ; and 

 these correspond w^ith his different condition as 

 to strength and fatness, and with his passions. 

 It is after the period of contention that the stag 

 is once more found in the copses and underw^ood, 

 feeding peacefully with his former rivals. And 

 now the process of absorption takes place at the 

 root of the horns, and thev are shed : sometimes 



