The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-06-10
NATURES MYSTERIES.
One of Them Ia the Disappearance OF the
Bucks Horns,

Bucks Horns.
zone OF the greatest mysteries of the
woods is the buck deer and it's antlcrs,"
remarked an observant old Pike county
hunter. "Who ever killed a buck that
had no horns, and who ever found n set
Of antlers in the woods? 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 l
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 he 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? l never heard
of any one coming across dead
bear or deer or wildcat or fox in the
woods that had died from natural
causes. ] found the carcass of n big
f1ve.pronged buck in the woods once,
but "a rattlesnake. also dead, had its
fangs buried in the deer's nostrils.
There had evidently been fight to the
death between the reptile and the
beast. Another time l followed the
trail of a bear from clearing where
1t had stolen a young sheep. came
upon the headless body of the sheep
mile or so out on the trail, and half a
mile further on, near the edge of a
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. I held a post-mor-
TEN examination on the dead bear and
found the sleeps head lodged in it's
throat. How or why the bear ever
permitted it to get there am unable
to explain. have many times found
other dead wild animals in the woods,
|
questionable evidence Of having died
from violence of some kind Every
woodsman will tell you the same.
~ don't believe there is anything
more curious in nature than the buck S
horns They begin to make their APP
pearance in the spring of the buck S
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 gen
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 stretch es
over them, and continues to do so unit
they have reached their natural size
and become solid horn. This is the
stage in the growth of the antlers thai
is technically known among hunter.
as the time when the buck is in velvet.
The skin is, indeed, beautiful velvet
covering, and all beneath it is, in fact
simply great tissue of blood vessels
While the horns continue soft and ;
part of the deer's nervous and veinou
structure, the arteries which run VI
from the head through them max,
burrows in the yielding. substance.
is these burrows that give to the buck
horns their rough, corrugated surface
when they have become hardened.
"The bucks first horns do not ar
rive at the dignity of the antlers. The,
are simply graceful, sharp-pointet
spikes; hence the term spike buck
among hunters. Each succeeding yea
adds prong, though, and when tn
buck is adorned with his proud head
that he can't be less than seven year
old. The tive-prong antler is the per
feet and complete one, and any NOR
prongs have no significance except a
freaks. But the velvety skin, with it
delicate subarterial structure, grow
with and envelopes all the great sprea
of the tive-prong antler, as well as tn
few inches of the young bucks spike
AS long as the horns are in velvet the
are extremely tender and entirely use
less. The soft skin must therefore b
removed, but not suddenly nor rough
ly, and not until another extraord
nary stage in the development of tn
horns is completed. The arteries an
their circulation must be disconnecte
from the horns before the skin
broken, or the result would be tn
turning of the large quantity of bloc
back to the brain or some internf
organ and death be the result. Tht
. danger is prevented and the d,
. sired end at the same time n,
complished by the formation
a rough ring of bone around tn
base of the horns, notches being left
! it at first for the passage of the arte
les. These openings are gradually col
/ tracted as new bone forms until tn
arteries are compressed as by lig,
/ ture, and the circulation above the rim
of bone is effectually stopped. I'll
velvet skin, thus deprived of it's Wit;
source, dries up and peels off of til
, horns, a process which the buck no
hastens by rubbing his antlers again
the trunks of trees. This rubbin
against the trees displaces more or LEI
2 bark, and leaves a favorite sign to I'll
observant hunter passing through IL
, woods that there are deer about. Whe
the velvet is off the horns they ha,
reached their perfect stage
That the sweeping. powerful an
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