286 CARNIVORA. 



The true Newfoundland is a magnificent and benevolent-looking 

 animal, and an admirable companion ; it stands twenty-five to thirty 

 inches high, and has a long, shaggy coat ; the favorite color is black, or 

 black and white. Anecdotes of him are innumerable. 



The story of the big dog that dropped the little dog into the water 

 and then rescued it from drowning, is well known. But another dog 

 behavsd in a less generous manner. • Being provoked beyond all 

 endurance by the continued annoyance of a small dog, it took the little 

 tormentor in its mouth, swam well out to sea, dropped it in the water, 

 and swam back again. Another of these animals, belonging to a work- 

 man, was attacked by a small and pugnacious bulldog, which sprang 

 upon the unoffending canine giant, and, after the manner of bulldogs, 

 " pinned " him by the nose, and there hung, in spite of all endeavors to 

 shake it off. However, the big dog happened to be a clever one, and 

 spying a pailful of boiling tar, he bolted toward it, and deliberately 

 lowered his foe into the hot and viscous material. The bulldog had not 

 calculated on such a reception, and made its escape as fast as it could 

 run, bearing with it a scalding memento of the occasion. 

 J The attachment which these magnificent dogs feel toward mankind is 

 almost unaccountable, for they have been often known to undergo the 

 greatest hardships in order to bring succor to a person whom they had 

 never seen before. A Newfoundland dog has been known to discover 

 a poor man perishing in the snow from cold and inanition, to dash off, 

 procure assistance, telling by certain doggish language of its own of the 

 need for help, and then to gallop back again to the sufferer, lying upon 

 him as if to afford vital heat from his own body, and there to wait until 

 the desired assistance arrived. 



One day a Newfoundland dog and a mastiff had a sharp quarrel over 

 a bone. They were fighting on a bridge, and over they went into the 

 water. The banks were so high that they were forced to swim some dis- 

 tance before they came to a landing-place. It was very easy for the 

 Newfoundland ; he was as much at home in the water as a seal. But 

 not so poor Bruce the mastiff; he struggled and tried his best to swim, 

 but made little headway. The Newfoundland dog quickly reached the 

 land, and then turned to look at his old enemv. He saw plainly that his 

 strength was fast failing, and that he was likely to drown. So what did 

 the noble fellow do but plunge in, seize him gently by the collar, and 

 keeping his nose above water, tow him safely into port ! It was funny to 



