MILESTONES OF EVOLUTION 47 



which take place between the columnar, pointed shafts 

 and the strangely curved adult weapons. These could 

 easily have been obtained in days gone by, when large 

 numbers were slain for food, or " sport." But in those 

 days the importance of these things was undreamed of. 



The antlers of deer yield a stiU more striking illustration 

 of the way in which young mammals, in the course of 

 their development, repeat in broad outlines, anyhow, 

 the history of their race. The antlers of deer, it will be 

 remembered, differ from the horns of oxen and antelopes, 

 for example, in many ways. In the first place they are 

 commonly more or less elaborately branched ; in the 

 second they have no horny outer covering or sheath, to 

 serve as a protection against the action of sun and wind 

 and rain. Very well. Now let us take a rapid survey of 

 the apparent course of evolution of these most wonderful 

 weapons. 



To begin with, we must regard the stately giraffe and 

 the lordly deer as divergent branches of the same family. 

 Now the giraffes are horn-bearing creatures. But their 

 horns differ conspicuously from those of oxen and their 

 kin, in that they are covered with skin and hair like 

 the rest of the body. But in that strange animal the 

 Okapi, whose discovery created such widespread interest 

 about a dozen years ago, the tips of these horns project 

 through the skin in the form of a pair of polished cusps. 

 It is probable that these cusps are remnants of once 

 larger structures, answering to the antlers of deer, and 

 possibly resembling the antlers of the smalt Asiatic 

 muntjac deer. Herein we find a pair of long, skin- 

 covered horns or " pedicles," answering to those of the 

 giraffe and okapi, surmounted each by a shaft of naked 

 bone forked at the tip : they are the " antlers," and are 



