[ Young / By Canoe and Dog Train Among The Cree and Salteaux Indians ]
Egerton Ryerson Young (1840 - 1909) was a Canadian writer, lecturer, and Methodist missionary; many of his books are tales of his adventures among the Native People of the Canadian northwoods.
Two of the dogs Young mentions in this travelogue, Jack the (sort-of?) St. Bernarnd and Cuffy the Newfoundland, are discussed at much greater length by Young in another of his works, My Dogs in the Northland, discussed here at The Cultured Newf.
In By Canoe and Dog Train, Cuffy the Newf is first mentioned in connection with the very difficult winters Young endured when he lived near Oxford Lake, in central Manitoba, Canada:
On this lake, which can give us such pictures of wondrous beauty, I have encountered some of the greatest gales and tempests against which I have ever had to contend, even in this land of storms and blizzards. Then in winter, upon its frozen surface it used to seem to me that the Frost King held high carnival. Terrible were the sufferings of both dogs and men on some of those trips. One winter, in spite of all the wraps I could put around me, making it possible for me to run—for riding was out of the question, so intense was the cold—every part of my face exposed to the pitiless blast was frozen. My nose, cheeks, eyebrows, and even lips, were badly frozen, and for days after I suffered. Cuffy, the best of my Newfoundland dogs, had all of her feet frozen, and even Jack’s were sore for many a day after.
Cuffy is mentioned again later in the book when Young describes his cordial reception by the Salteaux people (part of the Ojibwe Nations in Canada):
A little log house, twelve by twenty-four feet, had been put up, and in one end of it I was installed as my present home. My apartment was just twelve feet square, but to me it was all-sufficient. It was kitchen, bedroom, dining-room, study, reception-room, and everything else. Two of my grandest dogs, Jack and Cuffy, shared it with me for months, and we had a happy and busy time.
As Young describes the harvesting of timber for the construction of a church for the Salteaux, he notes that he has multiple Newfoundlands:
We cut down the trees, measured them, squared them, and got them ready for their places. Then we hitched one end on a strong dog sled, and attached one dog to this heavy load. How four dogs could drag these heavy sticks of timber was indeed surprising. The principal pieces were thirty-six feet long and ten inches square. Yet my gallant St. Bernards and Newfoundlands would take these heavy loads along at a rate that was astounding. We had thirty-two dogs at work, and rapidly did our piles of timber and logs accumulate.
These multiple Newfs are references again when Young discusses his early disappointment with the native sled dogs he tried to use for his winter travels:
After a few wretched experiences with native dogs, where I suffered most intensely, as much on account of their inferior powers as anything else, I began to think of the many splendid St. Bernard and Newfoundland dogs I had seen in civilised lands, doing nothing in return for the care and affection lavished upon them.
. . . .
I found by years of experience that the St. Bernard and Newfoundland dogs had all the good qualities, and none of the defects, of the Esquimaux. By kindness and firmness they were easily broken in, and then a whip was only an ornamental appendage of the driver’s picturesque costume. Of these splendid dogs I often had in my possession, counting old and young, as many as twenty at a time. The largest and best of them all was Jack, a noble St. Bernard. He was black as jet. . . .
Young makes no other specific references to Newfoundlands in this book.
Young also owned another Newfoundland, Rover II or Kimo, whose story is told in Chapter XII of My Dogs in the Northland, accessible here at The Cultured Newf.
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.by canoe and dog train among the cree and salteaux indians