that in the summer he would
sometimes make a pile of fifty or sixty a-day just at that place. He
never attempted to eat them, but seemed to be fishing purely for his
own amusement. I watched him for about two hours, and when the fish
did not come I observed he once or twice put his right foot in the
water, and paddled it about. This foot was white, and Harvey said he
did it to _toll_ or entice the fish; but whether it was for that
specific reason, or merely a motion of impatience, I could not exactly
decide."

Extraordinary as the following anecdote may appear to some persons, it
is strictly true, and strongly shows the sense, and I am almost
inclined to add, reason of the Newfoundland dog.

A friend of mine, while shooting wild fowl with his brother, was
attended by a sagacious dog of this breed. In getting near some reeds
by the side of a river, they threw down their hats, and crept to the
edge of the water, when they fired at some birds. They soon afterwards
sent the dog to bring their hats, one of which was smaller than the
other. After several attempts to bring them both together in his
mouth, the dog at last placed the smaller hat in the larger one,
pressed it down with his foot, and thus was able to bring them both at
the same time.

A gentleman residing in Fifeshire, and not far from the city of St.
Andrews, was in possession of a very fine Newfoundland dog, which was
remarkable alike for its tractability and its trustworthiness. At two
other points, each distant about a mile, and at the same distance from
this gentleman's mansion, there were two dogs of great power, but of
less tractable breeds than the Newfoundland one. One of these was a
large mastiff, kept as a watch-dog by a farmer, and the other a stanch
bull-dog, that kept guard over the parish mill. As each of these three
was lord-ascendant of all animals at his master's residence, they all
had a good deal of aristocratic pride and pugnacity, so that two of
them seldom met without attempting to settle their respective
dignities by a wager of battle.

The Newfoundland dog was of some service in the domestic arrangements,
besides his guardianship of the house; for every forenoon he was sent
to the baker's shop in the village, about half-a-mile distant, with a
towel containing money in the corner, and he returned with the value
of the money in bread. There were many useless and not over-civil curs
in the village, as there are in too many villages thro