THE DOG. 



effects of fatigue and stanration, and many of the survivors 

 commit sad depredations on the neighbouring flocks as soon as 

 the summer commences and they are freed from their daily 

 toils." •' 



There are two kinds of Newfoundland dog. One is con- 

 siderably larger than the other, measuring about two feet nine 

 mches in height, while the smaUer (sometimes called i,ie La- 

 brador or St. John's dog) rarely measures higher than two 

 feet. The Newfoundland is evidently a water dog. Not only 

 does_ he freely enter the unstable element at the least bidding, 

 but if he should happen to live near the sea or a river, and 

 can find a playfeUow of his own kind, their swimming matches 

 and aquatic gambols are a good thing to witness. No doubt 

 this dog owes its swimming powers in a great measure to its 

 broad feet and strong legs. 



Its sagacity in assisting a drowning person is wonderful. 

 It IS not content with seizing any part of the person or dress 

 and endeavouring to paddle shoreward; it will shift and 

 shift its hold till it secures a grip on anything that may 

 encurcle the neck, and there hold on as though aware that as 

 long as a man's head was out of the water no harm could come 

 to him. On shore his inteUigenoe is just as surprising. Take 

 the foUowing as a sample, on the undoubted authority of the 

 Eev. J. G. Wood : — 



" One of these animals belonging to a workman was attacked 

 by a small and pugnacious buU-dog, which sprang upon the 

 nnofiending canine giant, and after the manner of bull-dogs 

 'pmned' him by the nose, and there hung in spite of aU 

 endeavours to shake it off. However, the big dog happened to 

 be a clever one, and, spying a pailful of boiling tar, he has- 

 tened towards it, and deliberately lowered his foe into the hot 

 and viscous material. The bull-dog had never calculated on 

 such a reception, and made its escape as fast as it could run." 



