THE HOLLOW-HORNED RUMINANTS. 



87 



bilberries, alders, and the bark of shrubs such 

 as grow in the damp and marshy soils which 

 it frequents. Like all members of the deer 

 family, it lives in flocks, which conceal them- 

 selves by day and go out in the evening 

 under the leadership of very combative and 



even fierce males. The flesh of the elk is 

 tough, coarse, and of an unpleasant taste ; but 

 the hide, which is of a very firm texture, is 

 highly esteemed on account of the very good 

 flexible leather which is made from it. Great 

 havoc was wrought among the flocks of elk 



iig i6^ —The Pronghom Anlelope {Aniilocafra americautij pige 



in those times when it was thought impossible 

 to have a good cavalry without tightly-fitting 

 leather hose. 



THE HOLLOW-HORNED RUMINANTS 



(CAVICORNIA). 



The family of the hollow-horned ruminants 

 is distinguished, as the name indicates, by 

 the possession of hollow horns, which form 

 cases round bony pegs or processes from the 

 frontal bone. 



All typical Cavicornia have only simple 

 horns, without branches, formed over bony 

 axes, which are either, as in the goats, solid 

 and traversed only by the canals of the blood- 

 vessels, or are hollow in the middle, and in 



that case have the bony tissue of a much 

 more spongy texture, as is the case with the 

 ox genus. It is impossible to convey a 

 better idea of these horny but very variously 

 formed cases than by saying that they stand 

 in the same relation to the bony core as the 

 hoof to the last phalanx of the toe. A thick 

 and highly vascular coat forming a continu- 

 ation of the skin covers the bone, and is 

 nourished by its vessels; and the hollow case 

 or envelope is composed of fused horny 

 fibres formed from fluids which exude from 

 this vascular coat. The growth of the horny 

 case goes on throughout life, but with less 

 rapidity in advanced age, and with numerous 

 interruptions, which betray themselves by 

 the presence of rings and knobs. 



