176 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
ternal vessels had 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, which 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 antler 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 large 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- 
