The Newfoundland Dog

Generic Characters.

Six cutting and two canine teeth in each jaw.
Five toes before; four behind.
Visage long.

THIS is the largest animal of the canine species, measuring frequently upwards of six feet in length, from the nose to the extremity of the tail, which it usually carries in a curl over the rump. It is proportionably large in all its members, and possesses an uncommon degree of strength and courage, united with the greatest sagacity and fidelity to its master; these qualities, added to the faculty of swimming in a very superior style, and diving to any depth, render this animal the most useful of the class to which it belongs. When young, it is gentle and engaging in its manners; but, as it advances in years, its ferocity gradually increases, especially under confinement, and at length, when arrived at maturity, it becomes a most formidable, and sometimes dangerous, animal.

The body is covered with long, thick hair, well calculated to resist the rigour of the climate of which it is indigenous. The toes are connected by membranes, the conformation of which is such as to enable it to swim very rapidly, and to dive with the greatest ease; and its eager appetite for raw fish seems to bear some analogy with its attachment to the water.

This beautiful animal has been only known of late years in England; but as it breeds very freely, and the climate seems well adapted to its constitution, it is now become pretty common, and has hitherto shewn no signs of degeneracy, nor lost any of its good qualities. It was originally brought from Newfoundland, where the inhabitants find it of essential service. Its great strength enables it to draw considerable weights, and four of them yoked to a sledge, will trail three hundred weight of wood, with apparent ease, for the space of several miles. Their docility is no less conspicuous, in the manner of performing this service, which they execute without a driver, and having delivered their load at the destined place, return in the same order to the woods whence they were dispatched, and where their labours are commonly rewarded with a meal of dried fish. [ source note ]

The Newfoundland Dog is of infinite service to seafaring persons, particularly in coasting vessels, and those which navigate rivers; as, in case of any one's accidentally falling overboard, the Dog will instantly jump after the person, and either bring him safe to land, or keep him from sinking, till proper assistance be procured. Of this, numberless instances have occurred, sufficient to establish the fact beyond a possibility of doubt.

They also make excellent house or yard Dogs, and guard the premises committed to their care with the strictest fidelity. They have often been known to seize, and even kill, house-breakers, which have intruded on the houses consigned to their protection; and lately, at the royal hunt, in Windsor Forest, the Deer in chase, which was of the large red kind, in attempting to leap over the palings of a park at Warfield, was instantly seized by the throat, by a large Newfoundland Dog, which happened to be loose in the park, and severely punished for its intrusion.