The following is an excerpt from Admiral Kennedy’s 1885 text “Sport, Travel, and Adventure in Newfoundland and the West Indies” in which he recounts his visit to Little Bay in 1881.

Soon after we had anchored, the ” oldest in- habitant” came on board to see me. I gave him a good stiff glass of old Scotch whisky, which loosened his tongue.

“Them’s fine heads,” said he, looking at my caribou heads in the cabin; ” but Lor’, sir, they’re nothing to some I shot when I first came here.” Whereupon he related the following story:—

“I was a-beating up the river some years ago, when I seed, as I thought, a tree floating down. But I soon saw they was two fine stags; so I puts me ‘elm down, and seizing my gun, I shoots ’em, right and left: and would you believe me, the horns of one was 5 feet ll 3/4 inches across, and the other over 6 feet!”

Later in the evening, after more grog, he related the same yarn; but the horns had grown considerably.