Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/201

Rh continues so to do until they have acquired their due development and solidity. This skin is a tissue of blood-vessels, and the courses of the large arteries from the head to the end of the antlers are imprinted on the latter in long furrows, which are never obliterated. In ordinary language, the skin investing the antlers is termed velvet, being covered with a fine pile of close short hair. Suppose, then, the antlers of the young deer now duly grown, and still invested with this vascular tissue&#59; but the process is not yet completed. While this tender velvet remains the deer can make no use of his newly-acquired weapons, which are destined to bear the brunt of many a conflict with his compeers: it must, therefore, be removed, but without giving a sudden check to the current of blood rolling through this extent of skin, lest by directing the tide to the brain, or some internal organ, death be the result. The process then is this:—as soon as the antlers are complete (according to the age of the individual), the arteries at their base, where they join the permanent footstalk (always covered with skin) begin to deposit around it a burr, or rough ring of bone, with notches through which the great arteries still pass. Gradually, however, the diameter of these openings is contracted by the deposition of additional matter&#59; till at length the great arteries are compressed as by a ligature, and the circulation is effectually stopped. The velvet now dies for want of the vital fluid&#59; it shrivels, dries, and peels off in shreds, the animal assisting in getting rid of it by rubbing his antlers against the trees. They are now firm, hard, and white&#59; and the stag bears them proudly, and brandishes them in de-