712 THE DOG. 



24th of June 1497, and, after several unsuccessful attempts 

 at settlement, received a small English colony in 1623, and 

 after fierce contentions, long carried on between the French 

 and English for the possession, was finally ceded to the latter 

 power by the Treaty of Utrecht. The settlements upon it are 

 very numerous, but are all confined to the coasts and bays. 

 They consist, exclusive of the capital St John's, of little villages 

 for the curing of the fish caught on the great Bank, and for 

 carrying on a trade in the salt and other commodities which 

 the fishery requires. The country, when discovered, was 

 possessed by Esquimaux and a few tribes of Red Indians, 

 long since almost exterminated by their mutual wars, and 

 intercourse with lawless Europeans. It was probably from 

 the Esquimaux that the early settlers obtained their first dogs, 

 and learned the uses to which they might be applied for 

 draught ; but it is evident that European dogs, probably of 

 the Mastiff breed, were early introduced. The dogs are em- 

 ployed for dragging logs from the neighbouring woods for fuel 

 and the uses of the fish-curers. They feed on the waste fish 

 and garbage, which is everywhere found, and become so fond 

 of this kind of food, that they will readily devour live fishes 

 as they are brought out by the nets. They are made to un- 

 dergo incredible labour, and great numbers of them perish 

 every season from the cruel tasks imposed upon them. They 

 have acquired the conformation and habits which suit them 

 to the services to which they are inured, and transmit their 

 acquired characters to their offspring. Their limbs are more 

 muscular, and their bodies more bulky, than in the native 

 sledge-dogs, while they want the power of speed which the lat- 

 ter possess, and the faculty of following the deer and swifter 

 animals in the chase. They are wonderfully patient, and 

 never seek to escape from their taskmasters, whose com- 

 mands they readily comprehend. Yoked to their trucks or 

 sledges, they go, without a guide, to the woods where they 

 are to be loaded, and bring back their burden, and, when 

 unloaded, return again and again. Being continually on the 



