The Descent of Man

Tennent, 'Ceylon,' 1859, vol. ii. p. 275; Owen,
'British Fossil Mammals,' 1846, p. 245.) With
deer, in which the horns are periodically renewed,
the drain on the constitution must be
greater; the horns, for instance, of the moose
weigh from fifty to sixty pounds, and those of
the extinct Irish elk from sixty to seventy
pounds—the skull of the latter weighing on an
average only five pounds and a quarter. Although
the horns are not periodically renewed
in sheep, yet their development, in the opinion
of many agriculturists, entails a sensible loss to
the breeder. Stags, moreover, in escaping from
beasts of prey are loaded with an additional
weight for the race, and are greatly retarded in
passing through a woody country. The moose,
for instance, with horns extending five and a
half feet from tip to tip, although so skilful in
their use that he will not touch or break a twig
when walking quietly, cannot act so dexterously
whilst rushing away from a pack of wolves.
"During his progress he holds his nose up, so as