The great strength, hardihood, and patience of the Newfoundland dog, together with its sagacity and affection, have rendered it one of the most generally useful, as well as social, of the whole race. In Newfoundland, from whence it originally came, it is employed to draw carts and sledges, laden with wood and fish, and to perform a variety of useful offices, in place of the horse. As an aquatic dog, it is superior to every other kind; and this arises from its being semi-webbed between the toes, by which mechanism the foot presents an extended surface to oppose the water behind, and then collapses, when it is drawn forward previous to making another stroke. Owing to this excellent adaptation of its feet for the purpose of swimming, or rowing through the water, as Sir Everard Home calls it, more instances occur of human life being saved by the Newfoundland dog than by any other.
Mr. Youatt says that he knows the following anecdote to be a fact: — "A vessel was driven on the beach at Lydd, in Kent. The surf was rolling furiously, eight poor fellows were crying for help, but not a boat could be got off to their assistance. At length a gentleman approached the beach accompanied by a Newfoundland dog. He directed the attention of the animal to the vessel, and put a short stick into his mouth. The intelligent and courageous fellow at once understood his meaning, sprang into the sea and fought his way through the waves. He could not, however, get close enough to the vessel to deliver that with which he was charged, but the crew joyfully made fast a rope to another piece of wood, and threw it towards him. He saw the whole business in an instant: he dropped his own piece, and immediately seized that which had been cast to him, and then, with a degree of strength and determination almost incredible, he dragged it through the surf and delivered it to his master. A line of communication was thus formed, and every man on board was rescued from a watery grave. [ author's note ]
A Suffolk gentleman, being on an excursion with a friend, and having a Newfoundland dog also accompanying him, the animal soon became the subject of conversation; when his master, after a high eulogium upon his perfections, assured his friend that the dog would, upon receiving the order, return and fetch any article left at any distance behind. To confirm this assertion, a marked shilling was put under a large square stone by the road-side, having been previously shown to the dog. The two friends then rode for three miles, when the dog received his master's signal to return for the shilling he had seen put under the stone. The dog turned back, and the gentlemen rode on and reached home; but, to their surprise and disappointment, the hitherto faithful messenger did not return during the day. It afterwards appeared that he had gone to the place where the shilling was deposited, but the stone being too large for his strength to remove, he had staid howling at the place, till two horsemen, riding by, and attracted by his seeming distress, stopped to look at him; when one of them, alighting, removed the stone, and seeing the shilling, put it into his pocket, not at the time conceiving it to be the object of the dog's search. The dog followed their horses for twenty miles, remained undisturbed in the room where they supped, followed the chambermaid into the bed-room, and secreted himself under one of the beds. The possessor of the shilling hung his breeches up by the bed-side; but when the travellers were both asleep, the dog took the said garment in his mouth, and, leaping out of the window, which was left open on account of the sultry heat, reached the house of his master at four o'clock in the morning, with the prize he had made free with, and in the pockets of which were found a watch and money, that were returned upon being advertised: when the whole mystery was mutually unravelled, to the admiration of all parties. [ author's note ]
Mr. Poynder, brother to the treasurer of Christ's Hospital, brought one of these dogs from the island of Newfoundland, where it was born. This animal had established a strong claim on his master's affection, from the circumstance of his having twice saved his life by his sagacity in finding the road home, when Mr. Poynder had lost his way in snow-storms, many miles from any shelter. He had also swum more than three miles to gain the ship, after his master had embarked for England, and determined to leave the animal to the care of friends at Newfoundland. Mr. Poynder landed at Blackwall, and took the dog in a coach to his father's house at Clapham. He was there placed in a stable, which he did not leave until the second day after his arrival, when he accompanied his master in a coach to Christ's Hospital. Mr. Poynder went round to the front door of the treasurer's house, and thinks he left the dog at the garden entrance, for he did not recollect seeing him afterwards. In the hurry and excitement of meeting his friends, he for a few moments forgot his dog, but as soon as he recollected himself, he went in search of him; but he was nowhere to be seen. Early, however, next morning, a letter arrived from the captain of the ship in which Mr. Poynder had sailed from Newfoundland, informing him that the dog was safe on board, having swum to the vessel early on the previous day. By comparing the time on which he arrived, with that when he was missing, it appeared that he must have gone directly through the city from Christ's Hospital to Wapping, where he took to the water. [ author's note ] (168 - 171)