Reindeer horn

“ Moreover the females of some other species of deer exhibit, either normally or occasionally, rudiments of horns; thus the female of Cervulus moschatus has "bristly tufts, ending in a knob, instead of a horn;" and "in most specimens of the female wapiti (Cervus canadensis) there is a sharp bony protuberance in the place of the horn." [10] From these several considerations we may conclude that the possession of fairly well-developed horns by the female reindeer, is due to the males having first acquired them as weapons for fighting with other males ”

“ Groove-like or hollow spoon-shaped pieces of horn were explained by Fraas to be cooking and eating utensils; probably they also served for certain technical purposes—as for dressing skins for clothing and tents, like the stone scrapers found in the Somme valley. A doubly perforated piece of a young reindeer’s antler appears to be an arrow-stretching apparatus, like those generally finely ornamented, used by the Esquimaux for the same purpose. A branch of a reindeer’s antlers, with deep notches filed in, is declared by the discoverer to be a “tally.” ”

“ But when ye see its shape, ye'll perceive one of the most beautiful designs of Providence, a proveesion as we may say; for this inconvenient horn is so shaped that with it the beast can shovel away the deep winter snow and find its accustomed food.'
"And when I heard this I just shook with laughing till a man I knew saw me, and asked what I was laughing at, and I said, 'Because I happen to know that the male reindeer sheds its antlers every year in the beginning of November, snow shovel and all, and does not resume them till spring.'"!!!!!! ”

“ The deer's harness consists only of a collar of reindeer skin around the neck, with a rope at the bottom, which passes under the belly, between the legs, and is fastened to the bow of the pulk. He is driven by a single rein, attached to the base of the left horn, and passing over the back to the right hand of the driver, who thrusts his thumb into a loop at the end, and takes several turns around his wrist. ”

“ We are, however, quite certain that when the climate was severe enough to permit such animals as the musk-sheep and the reindeer to inhabit South-western Europe, man must have been provided with an abundance of warm clothing, though doubtless rudely made and fashioned. Many reindeer horns found in France are cut and hacked at the base in such a way as to indicate that it was done when removing the skins. We also know that the rudest of savage tribes are never at a loss for some process of tanning hides and rendering them fit for use. ”

“ Darwin as a solution of the problem, ‘Why has the female 270 reindeer horns?’ Evidently, they originally had none, but by constant pushing at their lords and masters they developed them by degrees; then, by the survival of the fittest, those does with the longest and sharpest horns prospered most, and soon there were none of the hornless does left, and all calves began to have horns as a matter of course. ”

“ As the reindeer is the one species in the whole family of Deer, in which the female is furnished with horns, though they are somewhat smaller, thinner, and less branched than in the male, it might naturally be thought that, at least in this case, they must be of some special service to her. The female retains her horns from the time when they are fully developed, namely, in September, throughout the winter until April or May, when she brings forth her young. ”

“ While I was looking at the magnificent horns of some of the beasts, Pehr remarked: "The horns of the males, which often weigh forty pounds, attain the full size at the age of six or seven years, those of the cow at about four years. The time the reindeer drops his horns is from March until May. In the adult animals they attain their full size in September or at the beginning of October. After the age of eight years the branches gradually drop off. They are the easiest animals that man can keep. They require no barns. They are never housed. They like cold weather and snow. ”

“ His great splay-feet, with their two lateral hoofs, are excellent, it is true, for getting grip on snow surfaces, but architecturally they are far from beautiful. And the carriage of the head is distinctly bad; whether standing still or on the move, they have their ears on a level with the withers, and the hairy nose stuck out in front.
Amongst all the deer tribes of other lands the females are hornless, but the reindeer, whether she is wild or whether she is domesticated, sports antlers of orthodox shape. ”

“ Varnish the rough part of the horns and let them dry; then take some chenille or tinsel cord to trim around the butt of the horns and around the 110back part or edge of the skull board. Tack it on with upholstering tacks. Cow horns and sheep horns are mounted in the same manner. The sheep horns should be cleaned with the lye, as directed for the deer horns, but no scraping or polishing is necessary; they look better rough. The cow horns should be polished, as directed on page 102, before they are put on the board. No polished horn should be varnished. ”

“ Cattle horns should have the piece of bone connecting them screwed to a long oval block, then treated similarly. Horns of sheep, cattle and goats frequently come loose from the bony core. A little plaster mixed very thin and poured inside the horn just before replacing them will fasten them on again.
Do not try to polish, paint, gild or otherwise improve the natural appearance of deer antlers. Wash and clean them well and rub in a little linseed oil. Polishing brings out the beauty of horns of cattle and bison, if the operator is lavish of elbow grease. ”

“ Very probably these primitive hunters consumed a great many in the open air on their hunting expeditions; it was therefore more or less a chance that so many reindeer bones were found in the cave.
At the present time the reindeer does not live in our latitudes, but has withdrawn to the extreme north of the Old World, and if the American reindeer may be considered the same species as ours, to the corresponding parts of the New World also. It lives in all countries north of 60 degrees, but in many places it is found occasionally up to 52 degrees of north latitude. ”

“ One day when the berries were about gone, Thorn saw a great herd of reindeer going by.
"Oh, look at all the reindeer, grandfather!" he cried. "Where are they going?"
"When summer comes," said Flint, "they go to a colder country; and when summer ends, they come back to the cave country."
There were many reindeer in the herd, and their antlers looked like a forest of trees without leaves. A big bear with hungry eyes was following the herd.
That evening a young hunter made a picture of a beautiful reindeer with his head among the grasses. ”

“ The length of the horn varies in the different species, the main horn of the kaboba exceeding four feet, while that of the moohooho is seldom over two feet. In all cases, among the double-horned animals, the rear one—that is to say, the one nearest the forehead—is always short, not often more than six inches.
There are many singular superstitions regarding the horn of the rhinoceros, which is not as valuable for its ivory as that from the elephant. ”

“ All and every part of a reindeer—living or dead—is indispensable to him. For food the reindeer is never at a loss, even fending for itself when winter snow covers the ground. With its hoof the reindeer scrapes away the snow and discovers underneath the reindeer moss—a lichen which forms a favourite food.
It is pitiable to see this graceful and useful animal ruthlessly slaughtered, as it has been in Spitsbergen during recent years, and it is discreditable to relate that a person of exalted position has been one of those who have set so deplorable an example. ”

“ Even when the feet are boiled, the hair never comes off without the skin. Thus the animal when living is the more firmly protected against the snow. The hoofs are thrown away as useless.
The dung of the reindeer in summer is almost as large as cow-dung, but in winter it more resembles that of the goat.
Each individual reindeer does not bear horns of precisely the same shape every year. ”

“ Above this snag, the horns have a shiny surface, are rounded, and taper gradually to a sharp tip, bent into a hook. The horns vary greatly in the males. I have sometimes shot them with the prong hardly developed, sometimes springing from the horn near the tip, and in others growing close to the head, where it is always uneven and warty. The female is devoid of horns, or only has them in a rudimentary condition. ”

“ Horns as weapons are, however, particularly effective in this group wherever they exist. A Ruminant is most frequently a large and heavy animal without the agility and litheness of the Carnivore. It is precisely to this sort of animal, where weight is an important consideration, that horns are the most suitable weapons. This is further shown by the fact that although the general term horn is used to describe the weapons of the Ungulate mammals, there is more than one kind of structure included under this general term ”

“ The doe's horns always seem to just grow on the skin like these extra horns on this head. I have often seen buck antelope that had little, hard, black bunches looking just like the stuff the horns are made of, growing on the skin of the head somewhere near the horns, but I don't know what it means, no more than I know what it means when a rabbit has a horn or a pair of horns."
"What do you mean, Hugh?" said Jack. "Do rabbits ever have horns? ”

“ The inspection over, the herd then wheeled, and returned to the pasture. It would be difficult to name another beast of burden so tame and so efficient as the reindeer. A good reindeer will travel one hundred miles a day over frozen snow, and can draw a weight of three hundred pounds; thus surpassing the dog by one-half in distance and two-thirds in drawing power. The loads carried by the camels of the Heavy Camel Corps across the Bayuda Desert were very little heavier than those drawn by the reindeer across the Northern steppes. ”

“ Several portions of deer horns, consisting of tines and thick portions of the body of the horn, together with a few of the roe-deer, presenting sometimes marks of a saw and sometimes those of a sharp-cutting tool, were found in the refuse-heap. The few worked objects I have to record were all made from horns of the former animal. One large antler, having portion of the skull attached to it, and the entire lateral half of the skull of a roe-deer with the horn still adherent, show that the horns were not shed ones, but those of animals actually caught and killed. ”

“ The horns of an old male are a magnificent trophy. Kinloch records having seen a pair, of which the unbroken horn measured sixty-three inches, and its fellow, which had got damaged, had fifty-seven inches left. Forty to fifty inches is, however, a fair average. According to Kinloch the very long horns are not so thick and massive as those of average length. Jerdon says the longest horns have three complete spiral twists.
The horns of certain varieties differ so much that I may say species have been settled with less to go upon. ”

“ The big horn is usually denominated a sheep, though it possesses far more of the characteristics of the deer and antelope families. Like the chamois, it is a dweller among the rocky cliffs and declivities, and only there does it feel at home, and in the full enjoyment of its faculties for security. Place it upon a level plain, and you deprive it of confidence, and render its capture comparatively easy. At the base of these very cliffs on which the Ovis montana disports itself, roams the prong-horn, not very dissimilar either in form, colour, or habits ”

“ The hunting- and post-horns were favourite emblems on medieval coats of arms, more especially in Germany33 and Bohemia.
It is necessary at this point to draw attention to the fact that the French horn is a hybrid having affinities with both trumpet and primitive animal horn, or with buccina and cornu, and that both types, although frequently misnamed and confused by medieval writers and miniaturists, subsisted side by side, evolving independently until they merged in the so-called French horn. ”

“ Even when we have no horns, we can close one eye and turn our head so as to protect the other. Until you have learned this trick, you must always crowd in on the lee side of a big reindeer for protection when in a blizzard.”
“I’ll remember that, mother. But I’m very sleepy now. May I rest awhile?”
“Yes. We’ll go to the top of that little knoll over yonder. You may sleep while I am chewing my cud.”
When they, had reached the place, Mother [Pg 33] Reindeer selected a nice bed of moss covered with a clean sheet of freshly fallen snow. They needed no blankets other than their thick, warm coats. ”

“ But it is a very formidable weapon, and some of the rhinoceroses with longer horns have been known to rush at a mounted hunter with lowered head, and then to strike upward with such terrible force that the horn has actually pierced the horse's body, and entered the thigh of the rider. ”

“ The touching-pieces (tousches) or proofs (espreuves) employed for the purpose, and considered especially efficacious against poison, were toadstones, glossopetræ, serpentine, jasper, agate and particularly the unicorn's horn. What was foisted upon the credulous public as the horn of the fabled animal was in reality the horn or tusk of a fish—the narwhal or sea-unicorn of the northern seas. Being an object of very great value, the horn was only occasionally kept entire, like the one preserved to this day at New College, Oxford. ”