316 NEWFOUNDLAND 



1906/ when I saw a wonderful head in the possession of the 

 Hon. J. D. Ryan, of St. John's. By some oversight I had 

 not my steel tape with me, but should say that it is at least 

 51 inches long and 45 inches span between the tops. The 

 brows and bays were poor, and it is not a remarkable head 

 in other respects, but it is probably the longest and widest 

 Newfoundland head in existence. The deer which carried 

 these horns was killed by Matty Burke, a half-breed Indian, 

 near the Tolt in October 1904. So far as I can ascertain 

 the three Newfoundland heads best for all round qualities 

 are as follows : The forty-five pointer killed by myself near 

 Mount Sylvester in October 1906, and the forty-eight pointer 

 shot by a railway man near Spruce Brook in 1905, and now 

 in the possession of Sir R. G. Reid, at Montreal. Mr. 

 Selous, who is a caribou expert, and has seen both examples, 

 says there is little to choose between them. Sir R. G. Reid's 

 head has better brow points than my forty-five pointer, but, 

 in other respects, my specimen is the finer. The third 

 example is a forty-eight pointer with magnificent bays. It 

 was killed on the hills near Grand Lake by an American 

 sportsman hunting from the " Bungalow" in 1906. I give an 

 illustration of this head from a photograph sent to me by Mr. 

 Whitaker. It is curious that General Dashwood, who had 

 so much experience in Newfoundland, never killed a remark- 

 able head ; but such is the case, for I have seen all the 

 heads collected by him, and, though he possessed many fine 

 examples up to thirty-nine points, there is not one which 

 might be called extraordinary. In St. John's, too, we should 

 expect to find some remarkable specimens, but, beyond the 



' In this year I obtained a head of 46^ inches. Rowland Ward in his horn 

 measurements gives two Newfoundland heads of over 46 inches, but I do not 

 think that they are correctly measured, as I have seen both of them. 



