CHAPTER III.

THE NEWFOUNDLAND.

UNTIL the St. Bernard became popular in this country the black and white Newfoundland dog appeared to hold the admiration of the public. He had been a hero in his own line, and "the travellers' tales" had informed us that this large dog occupied itself in its native country in saving the lives of drowning sailors and swimming with a rope in its mouth to some stranded vessel, and thereby enabling the shipwrecked mariners to obtain communication with the mainland and so escape a watery grave. Then, when brought here, the Newfoundland dog still maintained its liking for the water. On more than one occasion it had been known to save a drowning child, and Landseer further immortalized it by painting his great work "A Distinguished Member of the Royal Humane Society," a black and white Newfoundland dog, abounding in dignity and repose, which perhaps has been engraved and republished oftener than any other work of the great

animal painter. Fifty years ago a large proportion of the anecdotes of dogs related to the sagacity of the Newfoundland. Whether he really deserved all the good things that were said of him is a matter of opinion, or perhaps he has degenerated in intelligence during the past half century, for he is now only as other dogs and no more.

How he came to be so intimately connected with the island in North America from which he takes his name is not quite easy to make out. Possibly he might have been introduced to that country from England, still the dog common to the island a couple of generations ago was very far removed from the handsome creature we see gracing our show benches at the present time.

One would not be surprised to find the St. Bernard and the Newfoundland did originally spring pretty much from a similar cross. Occasionally we still see one of the former variety by his colour and general appearance nearly approaching the latter in appearance, and vice versa, especially when, as sometimes happens, the Newfoundland has brindled marks about his head. We are told that an actual use for this variety of dog was found by the poorer inhabitants of Newfoundland, who in lieu of horses harnessed him to their carts and in other ways made him a beast of burden, when they were not engaged

in fishing operations. Moreover, these poor dogs were badly treated, fed on the offal of the cod fish when it was procurable, and when such was not to be had the poor canine had to make shift for himself, and either starve or take toll from the flocks of the wealthier inhabitants.

Notwithstanding such ill-treatment, the dog remained faithful and constant to his owner, and bore the reputation as a protector of property not to be excelled. For these excellences then, and not for his actual beauty, was he originally produced, and no doubt when some seafaring man noticed one of these animals less gaunt and better furnished than usual, he for a few shillings would become its possessor, and bring the "foreign" dog home as a present from America to his friends. When properly cared for and attended to he would no doubt improve in appearance, was a favourite with his owners, and became as it were re-acclimatised in that country from which I do not doubt his original parents came. The Newfoundland is so unlike any of the native bred canide of the northern territories of America in every respect, not excepting in disposition, that there can be little doubt he was in the first instance produced by cross-breeding with European dogs, and most probably with those from Great Britain, whose shipping connection with New

G

foundland has always been greater than that of any

other country.

Little was heard about the Newfoundland dog until towards the beginning of the present century. Bingley, in his "Natural History," date 1809, does not allude to him, but a little earlier the " "Sportsman's Cabinet" mentions him as being "universally known in every part of the kingdom." Reinagle gives an illustration of the dog, a black and white, very much of the same type as we have now, and the writer of the article in the work named eulogising him in grandiloquent terms, makes him indeed a canine prodigy. But, as we have said, our modern dog and that originally brought from the island are totally distinct, and even so far back as when Richardson wrote, about 1845, the difference was acknowledged, and the strain known in this country was said to be "less sagacious, less active, and more apt to display irregularity of temper than the original breed," which was much the smaller animal of the two.

Here we have more to do with the Newfoundland in 1893 than with what he was said to be very much earlier in the present century. Now we have two distinct Newfoundlands: the one quite black, where even a white chest and white toes are supposed to be a disfigurement to a certain extent; the other black and white, called "Landseers," after the artist,