THE ANTLERS. 183 



larninse by inflammatory deposits between them, presenting to 

 the view a loose and porous appearance. When in this condi- 

 tion the diseased portion does not perfect its growth so as to 

 dispense with the periosteum, at the time the healthy portion is 

 prepared to do so, but even the portion of the velvet remaining 

 on the diseased part retains a certain measure of vitality, from 

 internal nutriment, when its proper supply is entirely cut off, by 

 the destruction and removal of the velvet on the healthy por- 

 tion below it. This is beautifully illustrated on the abnormal 

 descending tine on the left antler from a Columbia deer shown 

 in the illustration hereafter given. This black-tailed deer was 

 killed on the dividing I'idge which lies between Cottonwood Creek 

 and Clear Creek, extending from Cottonwood station to Igo in 

 Shasta County, California. It will be observed that a few 

 inches of the outer extremity of the tine is greatly enlarged. 

 At the time the deer was killed the velvet was remaining on this 

 portion of the antler alone. All the rest was denuded and the 

 surface well polished. After that remaining had become well 

 dried, I peeled it off and found that the canals for the blood- 

 vessels leading from the periosteum into the diseased bone had 

 become so enlarged as to be perfectly distinct to the naked e3'e, 

 indeed many of them were as large as a small pin. The visible 

 mouths of these canals leading to the Haversian systems within 

 are exceedingly numerous. Internally the cross section of the 

 diseased part of the tine presents that loose spongy appearance 

 so often seen in diseased bone. 



When growing, the antler of the deer is quite pliant, and may 

 be given almost any shape or direction, without apparent injury. 

 Nothing is more common than to meet with antlers from all the 

 species of this genus, taken from wild animals, with the beam or 

 more frequently some of the tines occupying unnatural positions 

 attributable to some force, applied when in an immature state. 



I have never known an instance where such injury to the 

 antler has produced disease. 



Once when taking a pair of black-tailed deer from a boat into 

 the steamship in the Columbia River in a gale of wind, one of 

 the antlers of the buck, which was a few inches long, got crushed 

 down, and yet it did not appear to become diseased from the in- 

 jui-y. It grew on in the form of an irregular mass, shed its velvet 

 at about the same time as the uninjured antler, and was cast off 

 about the same time, presenting no such appearance of disease as 

 in the case first described. The next year the antler grown upon 



