This is one of the noblest of the dogs — active, docile, affectionate, faithful, courageous and persevering. While some dogs delight in following the deer or the fox, in hunting the hare or killing rates, the noble Newfoundland dog finds his greatest pleasure in watching over and preserving the lives of human beings.
The Newfoundland dog is a native of the country from which he takes his name, and may be considered a distinct race.
The fine animal known to us by the name of Newfoundland dog, however, is only half-bred, and of size inferior to the dog in his native state, when it measures about six feet and a half from the nose to the extremity of the tail, the length of which is two feet. In its own country it only barks when greatly irritated, and then with a manifestly painful effort, producing a sound which is described as particularly harsh. Its exemption from hydrophobia in Newfoundland appears to be well authenticated.
The dog is employed by the settlers as a beast of burden, in drawing wood from the interior to the coast. Three or four of them yoked to a sledge will draw two or three hundred weight of wood with great facility for several miles. In this service they are said to be so sagacious and willing as to need no driver or guide; but, having delivered their burden, return without delay to the woods in the expectation of receiving some food in recompenie for their labor.
It is well known that the Newfoundland dog can swim very fast, dive with ease, and bring up tilings from the bottom of the water. His superiority as a swimmer is owing to the structure of the foot, which is semi-webbed between the toes, thus presenting an extended surface to press away the water from behind, and then collapsing when it is drawn forward, previous to making the stroke. This property, joined to much courage and a generous disposition, enables this dog to render those important services in the preservation of endangered life, of which such numerous instances are recorded.
Anecdotes illustrative of the sagacity, courage, and affection of the Newfoundland dog are numerous enough to fill a volume. We have room for only the following:
"Two dogs, the one a Newfoundland and the other a mastiff, lived near a harbor where a pier was building. They were both powerful dogs; and though each was good-natured when alone, they were very much in the habit of fighting when they met. One day they had a fierce and prolonged battle on the pier, from the point of which they both fell into the sea; and as the pier was long and steep, they had no means of escape but by swimming a considerable distance. Throwing water upon fighting dogs is an approved means of putting an end to their hostilities; and it is natural to suppose that two combatants of the same species tumbling themselves into the sea would have the same effect. It had; and each began to make for the land as best he could. The Newfoundland being an excellent swimmer, very speedily gained the pier, on which he stood shaking himself; but at the same time watching the motions of his late antagonist, which, being no swimmer, was struggling exhausted in the water, and just about to sink. In dashed the Newfoundland dog, took the other by the collar, kept his head above water, and brought him safely on shore. There was a peculiar kind of recognition between the two animals; they never fought again; they were always together: and when the Newfoundland dog had been accidentally killed by the passage of a stone wagon on the railway over him, the other languished and evidently lamented for a long time."
A Newfoundland dog, kept at the ferry-house at Worcester, was famous for having, at different periods, saved three persons from drowning; and so fond was he of the water that he seemed to consider any disinclination for it in other dogs as an insult on the species. If a dog was left on the bank by its master, and, in the idea that it would be obliged to follow the boat across the river, which is but narrow, stood yelping at the bottom of the steps, unwilling to take the water, the Newfoundland veteran would go down to him, and with a satirical growl, as if in mockery, take him by the back of the neck and throw him into the stream." (35 - 36)

(That final anecdote just above first appeared, to the best of my knowledge, in Sporting Magazine's December 1818 issue; it also appeared in The Percy Anecdotes (1821), and Thomas Brown's Biographical Sketches and Authentic Anecdotes of Dogs (1829).)


Newfoundlands are mentioned twice more, briefly, in this work. In the section on "The Shepherd's Dog" we find the following:




Finally, in the section on "The Esquimaux Dog":