SPORT AND TRAVEL 169 



off, as a favourable position occurred or some slight 

 violence assisted the removal. I have never observed 

 the animal to assist this process by rubbing its horns 

 against convenient objects, but my opportunities have 

 not been such as to authorise the statement that they 

 do not sometimes do so. 



" When the old horn was cast off, the new one, as 

 we have already seen, had made a considerable growth 

 above the core, which was already tipped with per- 

 fected horn, and a section below it was more or less 

 hardened, or partially converted into horn. This inter- 

 vening section gradually moved down the horn, con- 

 stantly invading the soft skin below, and followed 

 above with perfected horn. All this time the horn 

 was growing in length above the core, and assuming 

 that posterior curvature near its upper part which so 

 much resembles the curvature of the horn of the 

 chamois. After the horn is perfected down to the top 

 of the core, it ceases to increase in length, while the 

 apparently converting process steadily progresses 

 downward along or around the core. The core being 

 laterally compressed, the horn assumes that form, not, 

 however, conforming precisely to the shape of the 

 core, but extending considerably in front of it, where 

 it is thinner than the posterior part. At the upper 

 extremity of the wide, flattened part, the snag or 

 prong is thrown out, which consists of little more than 

 an abrupt termination of the wide part, with an ele- 

 vated anterior point. 



