( (invas-Biick and Terrapin. 737 



dog trained as these were will, unless forbidden, leave the blind im- 

 mediately and secure the bird. If no duck falls the dog lies down 

 again, invariably using his own judgment as to the result of the shot. 

 He will never stir without express orders, if he thinks the shot has been 

 ineffectual. The breed is peculiar to these waters. It is adapted to 

 the cold water, and has been cultivated for years, and is greatly prized 

 by the sportsmen of Maryland. 



iuch interest is now taken in this remarkable breed" of dogs, we will give a 

 few quotations about it, taken from " The Dog and the Sportsman," by T. S. Skinner, 

 former editor of the "Turf Register," etc., Philadelphia, 1845. In this book, the first 

 published in this country on the dog, game, and the gun. — and now quite scarce, — 

 is the first account of the origin of this breed. These quotations will put the reader in 

 possession of the ancient history of the Chesapeake Bay dog — [Editor]. 



Km to this stock, besides the best of them being still red or black, there are 

 other reasons for assuming that those most esteemed have descended from, and still 

 ke distinctly of, the blood and traits of a pair of these colors, brought directly, 

 male and female, from Newfoundland to Maryland, nearly forty years ago. Of that 

 importation, we are glad to have it in our power to preserve the following authentic 

 memoir, furnished, at our instance, by the importer himself, a gentleman who possesses, 

 as all his friends know, an instinctive fondness for good dogs and good deeds ; 



• • Baltimore, Maryland, January 7, 1845. 



Dear Sir : In the fall of 1807 I was on board of the ship Gviton, belonging to 

 my uncle, the late Hugh Thompson, of Baltimore, when we fell in, at sea, near the 

 termination of a very heavy equinoctial gale, with an English brig in a sinking con- 

 dition, and took off the crew. The brig was loaded with cod-fish, and was bound to 

 Poole, in England, from Newfoundland. I boarded her, in command of a boat from 

 the Canton, which was sent to take off the English crew, the brig's own boats having 

 been all swept away, and her crew in a state of intoxication. I found on board of her 

 Newfoundland pups, male and female, which I saved, and subsequently, on land- 

 ing the English < rcw at Norfolk, our own destination l>eing Baltimore, I purchased t lux- 

 two paps of the English captain for a guinea apiece. Being bound again to sea. I 

 gave the dog-pup. which was called Sailor, to Mr. John Mercer, of West River, and 

 hit-pup. which was called Canton, to Dr. James Stewart, of Sparrow's Point. The 

 -V which the English captain gave me <>t' these pope was, that the owner of his 

 MM extensively engaged in the Newfoundland trade, and had directed ln-> corre- 

 spondent to select and send him a pair of paps of the most approved Newfoundland 

 breed, but of different families, and that the pair I purchased of him wet 

 under this order. The dog was of a dingy red color and the slut bfeu k. They were 

 not large; their hair was short, but very thick coated j they had den Both 



attained great reputation as water-dogs. They wre most sagacious in everything, 

 particularly in all duties connected with duck-shooting. Governor Lloyd e» hanged a 



47 



