Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1882-08-23
THE DIER's ANTLERs.

H'0C0bLAf HGI0H0U0
u. 4 et1sns
The historical development Of antlers
In the deer tribe is very marked. While
the group was still young and dominant,
with the open glass-clad tertiary plains
all before it and with pleaty OF elbow.
room to spread AID multieiy. it had IA yet
no weapons Of oftense Of any kind. Bu
as the races grew thicker aud moro nu
1nerous and as space failed til. younger
genera,ion-for deer ike men, are subj ct
to the inexorable logic of the MIthu-
sians-the fathers of the herd began to
fight among themselves for the possess
sion Of the does, and only the it ongcst
survived to become the par, hts Of future
deerkind. BGtting mai nln1ly produces
hard bosses or protul berances Of some
sort, and III the ancestral deer these pro-
turberances took the siapa Of bony pro-
je'.tions on the forehead. Again, these
deer which had the most nla ked anu
most pointed projections would best >ai-
QUish their rivals, and 50 fare b st In g
Struggle for their kinds. Their descend
ants would inherit their peculiariti
with more or less variation aud would
similarly be selected by the law of battle
in accordance with the.r fighting powers
aud the fitness of their weapons. Al.G
this probability, set forth priori !y
Mr.. Darwin, exactly lies with the geo.
logical record as interpreted by PIof.
Boyd Dawkins. TIE very vag,,e and un-
specia lied deer Of the lower miocei.e
period had no antlers ut all they were
somewhat like musk deer without the
tusks, or like Young fawns III their first
summer But in the mil milo ,eae ant.
lers make their first appearance rs mere
Snort pointed knobs pext, they develop
Il single side tine ard in the upper mo
Gene they come ont as fully evolved as A.
our modern species. Every int rm, tiia;
stage can be traced between the mere
pascent boss ike that of budding roe
in our own day, and the many hrancned
headpiece of the existing reindeer. IN
deed, one late tertiary species had pair
of wonderfully intriate antlers which
far surpassed ii complexlty those Of any
living elk but, like many other highly
specialized creatures. This over-dcvel-
oped type seems to have fallen prey to
the grea. extinct carnivor1s Of The same
period. Before the ad ent of man. many
such high types existed, and they may
perhaps have been partly destroyed by
his moncpolizilg IL the most open and
desirable plains as his special nnn:ing
grounds. For we now know that man is
certainly quasternary, and probably a
tertiary genus us well and, even in his
lowest and humblest form, his intelli-
very first "a dominant lace and the real
lord Of creation
1t is Interesting to note, too, that the
historical evolution Of anslers in the deer
tribe is exac par.dleled by the modern
evolution of lers i'll every individual
red deer In "a first year stag has no
horns at all, and is technically known rs
calf IL nc second year he pu forth
paIr Of / ndea bosses, and il there
fore called hnobber in the slang of the
giIlies. With his third y ar the knobs
fall off, ana are replaced by longer horns,
ca led dass, while the stag himself is
now known as bvocket Thus, year
alter year, the growing deer reproduces
one It ,ge after another of the ancestral
development, ii i at length the top Of the
horn expands into a broad crown, and
tie beast i, then finally dubbed hart or
"stag Of ten" iron the number Of tines
Oh eacl of his ant lrs. II W uld he qnitc
possible t., plir the cast no las Of acil
year toleraDlv exactly with correspond
ing adu horns from the sue res i've ter
tiary strata Every dear in fact receipt
ulates III his nwn ierson the whole evo
luton Il his race, the antlers Of eac
successive yrar being different, not only
in size but in form and arr,uI2eme t a.
well, from tho e of all previous seasons
From the Pal Mall GGzctte.