40 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



creature ! yet till the spring-time comes it is all he has 

 to feed on. And hardly has he recovered himself a little, 

 when nature demands of him an immense exertion : his 

 antlers fall off close to his head, and another pair, even 

 higher and stronger than those just lost, are to supply 

 their place. And this operation is not a work of time, 

 proceeding slowly and with gradual development ; but, 

 by a strong effort, of rapid, nay almost sudden, growth. 

 In three months the stag has put forth his branching 

 antlers again ; and this time too the stems are thicker 

 than before, and on each is one point more than the pre- 

 ceding year. When we think of the comparatively slow 

 rate at which a hothouse plant, with all possible care and 

 forcing, expands in growth, or a child or other young 

 animal increases in stature, we can hardly comprehend 

 the productive power that, in so short a time, should be 

 able to force into existence an excrescence of such size 

 and weight, demanding too for its nourishment the 

 noblest juices — the sap and very marrow of the body. 

 Yet so it is. From the stag's head, " shorn of his beam," 

 the young shoot springs up, and like a sapling, buds and 

 puts forth a branch, and then another and another. Up- 

 wards still it rises ; and the thick stem divides on high 

 into more taper branchings, forming as they cluster to- 

 gether a rude mural crown. ' At the extremities all is 

 soft and tender, porous, and with much blood. Over the 

 whole, to preserve it from injury until it has grown firm 

 and hard,, is a thick velvet covering ; and not until all 

 beneath can bear exposure to the air does this fall off. 

 When first got rid of, the antlers are as white as ivory, 

 but they soon acquire their usual darker hue. 



It is now summer, and the stag revels in abundance. 

 He roams through the woods and enjoys the glorious 

 time in quiet luxury. But, as was said before, this is of 



