228 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
the first drift, after the more rapid current with its icebergs had 
swept off most of the surface material down to the bed rock, — 
the St. Peter’s sand-stone,—and at the same time the oaks and 
the conifers which formed his shelter. I am not aware that we 
have satisfactory evidence that any other of our existing fauna 
lived here, even at that time. So far as the proof goes, we may 
pronounce our deer the oldest of our extant fauna. The late 
Dr. J. W. Foster carefully examined the locality with me, and 
he pronounced it the oldest of the valley drift which had depos- 
ited these remains, and considered the find of the highest geo- 
logical interest. 
The antlers of the Acapulco Deer, which is the smallest of all 
our North American species, are widely separated from those of 
either of the other species both in size and form. I have but 
one pair of these in my collection from an adult, though I have 
several from young bucks. The large ones were from an animal 
that died of old age in the park of Governor Latham in Cal- 
ifornia, to whom I am indebted for a female of the same species. 
It is unfortunate that I have not antlers froma considerable 
number of full grown bucks of this species so that I could feel a 
confident assurance that I am presenting typical characteristics. 
Now there is a bare possibility, that the antlers before me are 
exceptional in their forms. However, in describing this single 
pair we may provisionally assume that the peculiarities are char- 
acteristic of the species, admitting that there may be minor dif- 
ferences in individuals, as we observe with all the others. They 
are illustrated in Fig. 24, on p. 224. 
These antlers spring from pedicels of unusual height for their 
size, which at their tops are two and one half inches apart. 
The extreme length of these antlers is seven inches and three 
lines and above the burr the circumference of each is two inches 
and nine lines where they are nearly round, but they very soon 
assume a triangular shape, and at two inches above the burrs 
from the inner side of the beams, the basal snags arise. That 
on the right antler is one inch in length and on the left it is nine 
lines long. Above these snags, the antlers flatten out from the 
triangular form into distinct palms, increasing in width and di- 
minishing in thickness to their ends, which are notched, the right 
deeply and the left slightly. At the broadest part, just below 
the notch, the right antler is one inch and ten lines wide, and 
the left is one inch and seven lines wide. The beam above the 
