[ Bingley / Useful Knowledge ]
Useful Knowledge; Or, A Familiar and Explanatory Account of the Various Productions of Nature, Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal, Etc by William Bingley is a three-volume work first published in 1816 (London & Philadelphia) and republished several times through the early 1850s. The text below is from the 4th edition, published in 1825 (London: Baldwin et al).
Bingley (1774 - 1823) was an English cleric and popular (and prolific) writer of works of travel, natural history, and biography.
This brief entry is basically an edited-down version of Bingley's discussion of Newfoundlands in his earlier book, Animal Biography, which is also treated here at The Cultured Newf. (That earlier entry was, in turn, taken largely verbatim from Thomas Bewick's A General History of Quadrupeds (1790).)
The NEWFOUNDLAND DOG, for united size, strength, and docility, exceeds all the kinds of dog with which we are acquainted. As its name imports, it is a native of the island of Newfoundland; and also of the adjacent parts of America, where it is employed in drawing wood on sledges, from the interior of the country to the sea-coast. Four of these dogs are harnessed to each sledge, and are able with ease to draw three hundred weight of wood for several miles. And it is peculiarly deserving of remark, that they often perform this service without any driver. Before the introduction of horses into general use in Canada, most of the land-carriage was performed by dogs.
The ease with which the Newfoundland dog swims, and the strong attachment which he forms towards mankind, have rendered him of great service in cases of danger from the oversetting of boats, and other accidents by water. (III: 26)