THE MULE AND WHITE -TAILED DEER 
species is comparatively scarce. On the whole, however the regulations 
regarding the protection of mule deer are better enforced than in the case 
of the wapiti. One buck only may be killed in a season in Wyoming, 
Colorado, Idaho, Montana, etc., so it is reasonable to suppose that 
although the animals are not one -tenth in number what they were in 
1880, they will survive for many years to come. If we except Colorado, 
where a few very fine heads are still annually killed, there is no better 
place for mule deer than the Chilcotin district of British Columbia. They 
are also fairly numerous in the Lillooet district, but seldom grow fine 
horns there. Before proper laws and protection were enforced mule deer 
were very abundant in Southern British Columbia, but a few years ago, 
in the eighties and early nineties, the Indians and a few white skin-hunters 
entered this region and nearly exterminated the deer. They also wiped 
out the sheep on the Semilkamin and the fine Osborn’s caribou in the 
Itcha mountains. 
There are a few very small mule deer in Southern Manitoba and 
Saskatchewan, but they are more numerous along the eastern foothills of 
the Rockies in Alberta, both north and south of Banff, and I have seen one 
or two really fine heads killed there recently by the Blackfoot Indians, who 
seem to be allowed to hunt as they like by the authorities. 
The antlers of the mule deer are very irregular in character but are 
distinctly beautiful and a good head of this species constitutes one of the 
finest trophies of American big game. The horns are dichotomous, that is, 
they have an arrangement of even forks instead of a continuous beam. Near 
the base there is a short sub -basal snag, usually much smaller than in the 
white -tail, and on this, and surrounding it, is often much corrugation. The 
beam is at first directed outwards and then curves upwards to form a 
regular fork with prongs, which are again divided in two long points, 
the two branches being about even in weight and size. I have, however, 
seen many examples of mule deer heads in which the main beam was 
continuous and curved forwards, with long points on the top, in fact, almost 
exactly similar to white-tail; the sub -basal snag alone always being 
small. Mule deer heads are, however, rarely palmated in the upper por- 
tion of the main beam, as white -tailed heads often are, but seem to expend 
excessive energy in numerous small points or hanging snags which drop 
from the ends or middle of the main beam. 
Very fine examples, which are certainly the handsomest heads, with a 
large number of supernumerary points, are not very rare but are now much 
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