[ Ballantyne / The Ocean and Its Wonders ]
In this non-fiction work, first published in 1874 (London: T. Nelson), Ballantyne mentions Newfoundland dogs only once, and that indirectly, when he quotes from Dr. Elisha Kent Kane's non-fiction account of his second search for survivors of the Franklin expedition, Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, which is treated in the "Non-Fiction" section of this website.
Ballantyne quotes Kane on the rigors of the long Arctic night and the sustained sub-zero temperatures:
"I am so afflicted with the insomnia of this eternal night, that I rise at any time between midnight and noon. I went on deck this morning at five o'clock. It was absolutely dark; the cold not permitting a swinging lamp, there was not a glimmer came to me through the ice-crusted window-panes of the cabin. While I was feeling my way, half
puzzled as to the best method of steering clear of whatever might be before me, two of my Newfoundland dogs put their cold noses against my hand, and instantly commenced the most exuberant antics of satisfaction. It then occurred to me how very dreary and forlorn must these poor animals be, at atmospheres 10 degrees above zero in-doors and 50 degrees below zero without--living in darkness, howling at an accidental light, as if it reminded them of the moon — and with nothing, either of instinct or sensation, to tell them of the passing hours, or to explain the long lost daylight. They shall see the lantern more frequently."