26 The West American Scientist. 
wholly to the washes and rocky slopes among the hills bordering 
the desert, while the broad, sandy or gravelly plains that con- 
stitute the big basin were almost destitute of these plants, pre- 
senting only a few stray Opuntias that maintained a very pre- 
carious foothold. But in the Pacific Mining District I found them 
in great variety and abundance, growing among the crevices in 
the fone and often forming impenetrable thickets along the 
washes. | , 
THE DEER OF SOUTHERN LOWER CALIFORNIA, 
(Written for the West AMERICAN SCIENTIST.) 
Judge Caton, in his excellent work, The Antelope and Deer of 
America, Second Edition, year 1881, page 337, says: ‘‘The mule 
deer in the Rocky Mountains is four times as large as in Lower 
California, which difference is also supplemented by the fact that 
the change in the antler is quite as great, for, on all of the small 
variety the antler has ceased to be bifurcated, but presents a 
spike like that of the yearling deer of the north; or if ever bifur- 
cated, that feature is as rare as on the first antlers of the better 
developed variety of the north, and yet I do not hesitate to rank 
them in the same species, from their exact similitude in all other 
respects, according to the reliable information received ofthem.”’ 
On page 119,he refers to it as ‘‘a remarkable variety of the mule 
deer, found by Mr. John Xantus, as I am informed by Professor 
Baird, one of the most reliable collectors of the Smithsonian In- 
stitute, who forwarded several specimens to Washington, from 
Cape St Lucas, Lower California. With all the other indicia of 
the mule deer, they are very diminutive in size” and have spike 
antlers about six inches in length. I have not been able to. learn 
that this diminutive mule deer has been met with except in the 
lower part of the peninsula, and the extent of its habitat there, 
is as yet uncertain.” | | ; 
I have no doubt that the specimens Xantus forwarded to the 
Smithsonian were yearling males, which are generally known as 
“Spike Bucks” though I have not seen thosespecimens. There is 
but one species of deer in the Cape region, and that is a fine 
large animal, quite equal in size to the mule deer of the Rocky 
Mountains, and the males have antlers as perfect, as profusely 
branched, and not materially different from the antlers of the 
deer of California, of corresponding ages. 
I saw more than a hundred pairs of antlers in various parts of 
_ the Cape region, and ot these but one pair deserves special men- 
tion. The unusual pair were from a ‘‘Capon,’’—so the hunter 
who had them said. They were vertical, thick, angular, very 
rough and in velvet. One prong was twelve inches long, 
the other three inches longer. 
It is well known that these unfortunates rarely or never have 
