92 Modern Dogs. 



and full of life and go looking at all times ready 

 to perform his duty to enter a rough sea. 



" To give an accurate description of a black 

 Newfoundland is an extremely difficult task, for the 

 simple reason that a really typical dog is in appear- 

 ance almost indescribable ; he must be seen to be 

 appreciated. I will, however, attempt what I consider 

 a fairly intelligible one. To begin with, he must 

 have a good general appearance symmetrical 

 throughout head should be well developed, with a 

 clean-cut muzzle, not too long, large skull, with 

 small, leaf-like ears set well back from the eye low 

 down on the skull, and fall close to the head, so 

 that when you look him in the face they are scarcely 

 perceptible, being hidden at the back of the jawbone ; 

 the eyes should be dark not black and fairly wide 

 apart. Much difficulty is being experienced in 

 getting the dark eye, which adds so much to the 

 appearance of the head, many of the best dogs 

 having light eyes, and the question is, where does 

 this defect come from ? You may mate a dark- 

 eyed dog and bitch, still light eyes will be found in 

 their progeny. It has occurred to me that the light 

 eye must to some extent be natural to a black 

 animal, for a black cat has always a light eye, and 

 a black horse has generally a light blue one, and so 

 I might go on down to pigeons. I must admit I 



