176 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



ternal vessels bad passed up into the antler, which had furnished 

 the internal nourishment during the growth of the antler, and 

 by which the hardening process within had been continued after 

 the velvet had been rubbed off. The hardening of this lower 

 extremity of the antler, so as to compress the vessels which pass 

 through it and arrest the circulation through them, is the means 

 by which the interior of the antler is left, to a greater or less 

 extent, porous and light as above described, and which, as we can 

 readily appreciate, is for the benefit of the animal. 



The diameter of the antler is only enlarged during its growth 

 by the elevation of ridges on the surface, so as to make channels 

 or beds for the large arteries of the periosteum. These channels 

 or grooves can be seen on the antlers of all the species, and show 

 that the arteries were enormous for blood-vessels for a perios- 

 teum, Avhich on internal bones are so minute that the naked eye 

 cannot see them. 



At the lower extremity of the antler, the enlargement con- 

 tinues, till the external growth of the autler is well advanced, 

 forming what is called the burr, where, when the growth is com- 

 pleted, the bone quite surrounds some of the arteries, forming 

 canals through which they pass, while others pass through deep 

 indentations which protect them almost as effectually as do the 

 canals. 



This shows us that those naturalists who have attributed the 

 death of the velvet to the compression at the burr, of the vessels 

 leading into it, are mistaken. This burr, instead of compressing 

 those vessels by its increased growth, is admirably designed to 

 protect them from injury ; and the protecting canals and indenta- 

 tions never do fill up by continued deposits of bone material, as 

 occurs to the canals leading into the antler above. Hence it is 

 that when the velvet is rubbed off or torn away, it is found 

 gorged with blood thrown up by these unchecked arteries. 



But there is another set of arteries, as we have seen, coming 

 from the persistent periosteum on the pedicel below, which pass 

 in at the articulation between the pedicel and the antler. These 

 are numerous and so lai'ge that their canals may be readily de- 

 tected with the naked eye. Let any one curious to examine this 

 interesting subject, take the first deer's head with antlers, which 

 he finds in the market, and carefully dissect away the skin below 

 the burr, and he will, without the aid even of a pocket glass, find 

 both these systems of canals through the burr, for the supply 

 of the periosteum, and those passing into the articulation be- 



