320 



belonged to some young animals of the species of the rein-deer, before 

 they had acquired their characteristic palm. 



These horns are distinguishable by their being very small, thin, and 

 rather flat ; and by their giving off, at a little distance from their base, 

 one or two antlers on their fore part. From a variation in this last cir- 

 cumstance, depending very probably on a difference in the age of the 

 animal, these horns may be divided into two sorts. 



In the one, at about two inches above the coronet, an isolated antler 

 is given off forwards ; and then the beam itself, which is but little larger 

 than this antler, turns backwards, to be again divided, or at least to give 

 off a second antler on its posterior part. A specimen of this sort, from 

 Etampes, which I purchased from the collection of Mr. Strange, and 

 which bears the description of " A fossil horn of an animal unknown to 

 Dr. Hunter," is represented Plate XX. Fig. 3 ; the dotted lines, in con- 

 tinuation, showing the manner in which the second antler was given off. 

 In the other sort, two antlers are given off forwards, at about an inch 

 from the base, and at a little distance from each other, the beam then 

 passing backwards. It is worthy of notice, that although the root is nearly 

 round, the beam immediately becomes flat ; and this is particularly the 

 case in the horns of the latter sort. 



That these are not the horns of young rein-deer is evident ; not merely 

 from their not agreeing in all the characters of these horns, but from 

 their having belonged to adult animals, whose epiphyses were in union 

 with their bones. There is no animal of the old continent to which these 

 bones can be referred, nor do we know that the analogue of this fossil 

 animal is to be found on the new continent. 



In the quarries of Montabusard, in which it will be seen two species of 

 the genus Pateothei'ium and one of the genus Mastodon have been found, 

 two fragments of the horns, and several portions of the jaws, which are 

 not distinguishable from those of the common roebuck, have been found. 

 This is a circumstance truly interesting, since we have here, on the same 

 spot, the bones of lost animals, as well as of animals similar with those 



