The Descent of Man

forward from the brow, and terminating in a
very sharp point. It gives a considerable advantage
to its possessor over the common buck.
Besides enabling him to run more swiftly
through the thick woods and underbrush (every
hunter knows that does and yearling bucks
run much more rapidly than the large bucks
when armed with their cumbrous antlers), the
spike-horn is a more effective weapon than the
common antler. With this advantage the spikehorn
bucks are gaining upon the common
bucks, and may, in time, entirely supersede
them in the Adirondacks. Undoubtedly, the
first spike-horn buck was merely an accidental
freak of nature. But his spike-horns gave him
an advantage, and enabled him to propagate
his peculiarity. His descendants having a like
advantage, have propagated the peculiarity in a
constantly increasing ratio, till they are slowly
crowding the antlered deer from the region
they inhabit." A critic has well objected to this
account by asking, why, if the simple horns are