TEE KEWFOO^L AXE-DOG. 
723 
fits him for the use of man, and he never shrinks from any 
service which may be required of him, but undertakes it 
with an ardour proportionate to the difficulty of the exe¬ 
cution. 
Sagacity, and a peculiarly faithful attachment to the hu¬ 
man species, are characteristics inseparable from this dog ; 
and hence he is ever on the alert to ward off from his master 
every impending danger, and to free him from every peril to 
which he may be exposed. He is endowed with an astonish¬ 
ing degree of courage, whether to resent an insult or to 
defend his friends, even at the risk of his own life. 
As a proof of the intellectual superiority of the Newfound¬ 
land-dog, we may mention, that innumerable instances have 
occurred of their having saved persons from drowning, of 
their own accord, which the following facts will prove :— 
A farmer’s servant man, passing a deep water on horse¬ 
back, with a woman behind him, the latter slipped off, and 
after a few struggles sunk to the bottom, unperceived by the 
clown, who rode on. Some spectators at a, distance hastened 
to the water-side, and beheld the efforts of a Newfoundland- 
dog which attended the careless servant. The friendly ani¬ 
mal had perceived the woman fall, and instantly swam to the 
place and dived after her. At first he brought her cap to 
the shore, but looking at it he dived again, and brought up 
her cloak : when he had brought it to the water-side, he 
looked at it for some moments as if with the anger of disap¬ 
pointment, and rushed back to the place the third time, and, 
to the wonder of the people present, he brought up the 
woman, over whom he expressed every demonstration of joy, 
She soon recovered, and was afterwards housekeeper to a 
clergyman in Norfolk. 
In the summer of 1792, a gentleman went to Portsmouth 
for the benefit of sea-bathing. He was conveyed in one of 
