OF EVOLUTION. 



actual position of the animal under consideration ? 

 This is a problem that does not admit of ready 

 solution ; indeed, there is a strong probability that 

 the hornless animals of the Lower Miocene period 

 were ancestral to both deer and antelopes, a dual 

 development starting out, just as we have seen to 

 be the case with many other animals, in diverging 

 directions. The high probability of this dual 

 development is forced upon us, apart from all 

 other considerations, by the remarkable case of 

 the prong-horn of the western plains, which is a 

 hollow-horned ruminant, to all intents and pur- 

 poses a true antelope, yet with divided horns, 

 whose sheaths are periodically shed, in the manner 

 of the shedding of the horns of the deer. 



The deer have quite recently furnished one of the 

 most interesting examples of a connecting form, or 

 so-called missing link, in an animal exhumed from 

 the swamps of northern New Jersey, which stands 

 intermediate between the stag and elk. This 

 relation is made clear by the figures of the skulls 

 of the three species which are placed before you. 



