170 CONSTRUCTION OF THE HORNS. 



the woods, or among the willows growing densely along all western 

 streams, are awaiting the growth of their horns. About the time of the 

 shedding of the winter coat, in earliest spring, the elk finds his antlers 

 uneasy upon his head, and begins to rub them against trees until they fall 

 off. You meet with discarded horns all over the mountainous West, and 

 formerly they were so abundant that the Indians heaped them into lofty 

 monuments. 



His antlers gone, the buck feels like Samson after the clipping of his 

 hair. He is afraid to meet other bucks, against whom he can no longer 

 oppose equal weapons. He is shy of the does, to whose favor his splen- 

 did antlers had once commended him ; so he secludes himself in some 

 retired spot, and for five or six months waits for his strength and beauty 

 to be restored to him in a new set of horns. During this time he makes 

 as little exertion as possible in securing the various weeds and grasses 

 which form hri food, and moves but short distances from his lair. 



~No doubt he feels sick and indolent, for all vitality is concentrated 

 upon the building of antlers. Over the knob on the skull, which is the 

 pedestal of the horn, spreads a thick skin, furred on the outside with 

 a coat of short brown hairs. This skin is porous with vessels bringing 

 blood and the calcareous materials out of which horn is constructed, which 

 ooze through the inner layer of this skin, and are deposited in the form 

 of spongy tissues that become harder and harder, and are surrounded by 

 a wall of denser structure. As fast as the deposits are made, the soft 

 skin, aptly called the " velvet," enlarges and extends itself, acting as a 

 scaffolding upon which the workmen, Blood and Company, can stand as 

 they put this bit of tissue and that bit of ivory in its place. At the proper 

 point prongs are made to diverge and continue their growth, while at the 

 same time the building of the beam of the horn proceeds. So the ant- 

 lers are erected by deposits sent from the velvet through all the spongy 

 mass of new horn, which feels warm to the touch, and is so soft that you 

 may bend it, or carve it with a penknife. 



In some parts of the world these growing horns, while still "in the 

 velvet" and surcharged with blood and nutriment, become a delicacy 

 among foods. There is a regular trade in edible reindeer horns from 

 Siberia and Lapland into China. The half savage owner of the herds puts 

 to some utility every scrap of the reindeer's body except its antlers. This 

 exception the Chinaman greatly wonders at. He is of the opinion that 

 no finer jelly exists than can be made by boiling down these succulent 

 horns. Buying the antlers in large quantities, the border traders dry 

 them thoroughly, and send them to all parts of the empire, and to the 



