The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1893-06-23
------s- --t--------- -------...------
NATURES MYSTERIES.
One Of Them is the Disappearance of tn
Huclx's Iyorpa

One OF Ihem fs the Disappearance OF the
| Bucks Horns.
"One of the grea test mysteries of the
woods is the buck deer and it's antlers, "
remarked an observant old Pike county
hunter. who ever killed buck that
had no horns, and who ever found Il set
OF antlers in the woodsP I've roamed
the forests of northern Pennsylvania
at all seasons during the past forty
years, and in that time deer have been
very plentiful in those woods, and I
never either killed hornless buck or
found pair of horns or heard of any
one who did. Yet woodsmen all know,
or ought to know, that no buck has
even the sign of horn until ho is two
years old, and that every buck that has
horns casts them off each spring and
grows new set.
Now where do all the bucks under
two years old keep themselves, and
what becomes of the cast-off antlers
That no woodsman ever sees? These
| are mysteries as deep as the mystery of
dead wild animals-I mean wild ami
mails that die natural deaths. The four
footed dwellers in the woods certainly
do not live forever, Age and disease
must carry them off regularly, as human
beings are carried off, but what be-
comes of their bodies? | never heard
of any one coming across dead
bear or deer or wildcat or fox in the
woods that had died from natural
causes. i found the carcass of big
five.pronged buck in the woods once,
but a rattlesnalSe, also dead, had its
fangs buried in the deer's nostrils.
There had evidently been a fight to the
death between the reptile and the
beast. Another time | followed the
trail of bear from a clearing where
1t had stolen.a young sheep. ! came
upon the headless body of the sheep "A
mile or SO out on the trail, and half
mile further on, near the edge of
swamp, was surprised to find the
dead body of the bear. Its jaws were
open and its CLASSY eyes were pushed
far out of its head. held post-mor-
tenn examination on the dead bear and
found the sleeps head lodged in its
throat. How or why the bear ever
permitted it to get there I am unable
to explain. have many times found
other dead wild animals in the woods,
but never one that did not show un-
questionable evidence of having died
from violence of some kind. Every
woodsman will tell you the same.
81 don't believe there is anything
mofe curious in nature than the bucks
horns. They begin TO make their ap-
pearance in the spring Of the bucks
second year The first sign of their
coming is a swelling of the skin over
the spots on top of the head from
which the horns are to rise. The an
tiers are now budding, for on the
swelling spots are the footstalks from
which they are to spring, and the
arteries of the head-the antlers being,
in all their preliminary or cartilaginous
stages, but parts of the animals gem
eral system-are beginning to deposit
on them, little by little, but with great
rapidity, the bony matter of which the
finished horns are composed. As the
antlers grow the skin still stretches
over them, and continues to do SO until
they have reached their natural size
and become solid horn. This is the
stage in the growth Of the antlers that
is technically known among hunters
as the time when the buck is 'in velvet
The skin is, indeed, a beautiful velvet
covering, and all beneath it Is, in fact,
simply great tissue of blood vessels.
While the horns continue soft and a
part Of the deer's nervous and veinous
structure, the arteries which run ND
from the head through them make
burrows in the yielding substance. 1t
is these burrows that give to the bucks
horns their rough, corrugated surface
when they have become hardened.
''Ths bucks first horns do not ar
rive at the dignity Of the antlers. They
are simply graceful, sharp-pointed
spikes; hence the term spike buck
among hunters Each succeeding year
adds prong, though, and when the
buck is adorned with his proud head
gear Of five prongs, all hunters know
that he can't be less than seven years
old. The five-prong antler is the per-
feet and complete one, and any more
prongs have no significance except as
freaks. But the velvety skin, with its
delicate subarterial structure, grows
with and envelopes all the great spread
of the five-prong antler, as we'll as the
few inches OF the young bucks spike.
AS long as the horns are in velvet they
are extremely tender and entirely use
less. The soft skin must therefore be
removed, but not suddenly nor rough
ly. and not until another extraordi-
nary stage in the development of the
horns is completed. The arteries and
their circulation must be disconnected
from the horns before the skin is
broken, or the result would be the
turning of the large quantity of blood
back to the brain or some internal
organ and death be the result This
danger is prevented and the de-
sired end Mt the same time ac-
complished by the formation OF
rough ring of bone around the
base of the horns, notches being left in
il at first for the paSSape of tho ,,ta,.