ON THE GROWTH OF DEER-HORNS. 355 



quote it in extenso, for the statements which it contains ai'e 

 founded on personal observation, and therefore valuable, and 

 probably very few of my readers have seen the original. 



"Various accounts have been written respecting the Red-deer; but as 

 controversies on the subject of the growth of the horns arise from time to 

 time, I am induced to present the following observations, although they 

 will be found to vary very materially from what has been written by others 

 who are considered good authorities. The best description, and nearest the 

 truth, which I have yet met with, is in the eighth volume of the ' Penny 

 Cyclopaedia,' published by Charles Knight & Co., in the year 1838. This, 

 however, is not exactly correct, for, in the first place, it states that the 

 horns of a male Red-deer do not appear till its second year, whereas they 

 do appear in his first year as a knob, or single straight horn, varying in 

 length from one to nine inches, but are not shed until he is twenty months 

 old. The formation of horns commences by an increase of blood through 

 the arterial circulation, as has been correctly stated by John Hunter in his 

 work on the blood, and copied into the ' Penny Cyclopaedia'; but this is a 

 part of the subject which I need not dwell on, and beg to refer the reader 

 to the work named for further information. Shortly after shedding the first 

 horns, the formation of the second takes place, according to the same process, 

 and these are shed in the latter end of April or the beginning of May, when 

 they will have attained a length of nearly two feet, or perhaps more ; these 

 in turn drop off, to be again renewed, and thus the same process is con- 

 tinued for a series of yeai-s, except some casualty should happen to his head, 

 or generative powers, whereby the growth of horns becomes immediately 

 arrested, as has been clearly and satisfactorily proved. 



" Several years since there came into my possession a younc male 

 Red-deer, only a few days old. Just then the Rev. J. Boyce (or as he was 

 familiarly termed ' Stag-hunter Boyce') happened to pass through Lynton, 

 on his journey to Porlock, and I had some conversation with him respecting 

 stag-hunting and the Red-deer. Knowing him to be the oldest stag-hunter, 

 and one who had been present at more deaths of the wild Red-deer in the 

 county than any other living being, I, in the course of conversation, asked 

 him whether he could tell, or if he thought it possible for anyone to tell, 

 the age of a stag by his horns. His answer was prompt and decisive, ' No.' 

 I then told him that I had a young male Red-deer, and that I intended to 

 keep him for the sole purpose of ascertaining and proving the question. 

 He said that this was the only way in which the different ages could be 

 possibly ascertained, as no two persons could be found to agree on the 

 subject. 



" At the time that this deer was in my possession I had an opportunity, 

 which I doubt if anyone will again possess, of frequently seeing together a 



