1876.] The American Antelope, or Prong Buck. 203 
successive sections become stimulated to great activity, do their 
work, and subside to quiet, till finally the base is reached and the 
horn is complete; and now the epidermis has a rest during the 
rutting season and until the time arrives for the commencement 
of a new growth, which proceeds as before ; and so is it annually 
repeated. 
We can partially understand how it is that the lately active 
part becomes quiet so soon as the horn over it is perfected, if we 
will remember that a partial separation takes place between the 
horn and a sensitive stratum of the epidermis, but I cannot so 
readily explain how it is that successive sections below are awak- 
ened from their state of quietude to an activity nowhere else in 
nature equaled or even approached for the same purpose. I can 
only say that the exigencies of the case demand it, and nature sup- 
plies the means. 
Altogether this is a most interesting animal, requiring peculiar 
conditions of life for its well-being, which confine it to a very 
limited area on the face of the earth. The discovery of this 
animal has opened a new chapter to the naturalist, in which 
some of his preconceived notions must be rudely swept away, and 
new possibilities in the animal kingdom recognized. It stands 
solitary and alone in the middle space where a void was thought 
to exist, which supposed zodlogical laws had declared could never 
be filled. It supplies a link in the animal kingdom which we 
thought could not exist, and which we were slow to recognize 
when found. It occupies an intermediate place, if it does not 
entirely fill up the gap, between those ruminants which have hol- 
ow and persistent cornuous horns and those which have solid and 
deciduous ones. It has eight incisors in the lower jaw, and no 
canine teeth, but twenty-four molars. We find examples of 
this dental formula in both the above groups. In its skin and 
Coat it is like the deer. Its eye is most like that of some of the 
antelopes. Its glandular system is most like that of the goat. It 
is the most delicate and particular feeder of all ruminants, while 
the goat is the most promiscuous consumer. In its salacious dis- 
Position it resembles and even excels the goat, but is the farthest 
of all from it in its ability to climb rocks and precipices. It has 
Many characteristics hitherto supposed to be confined to one or 
the other of the families of ruminants above referred to, while it 
exhibits others peculiar to itself. 
ince writing this article I have examined the illustrations here 
reproduced (see Figures 12 and 13), with the late Mr. Hays’s 
