Apparently some kind of alliance had been struck up between the Beothiks--a nation of hunters--and the wolf packs which followed in their tracks; and the Newfoundland wolves were on the way to becoming domesticated "dogs".
Later on it was realized that the island _did_ produce a special breed--the celebrated Newfoundland dog--the original type of which was much smaller than the modern type, nearly or entirely black in colour, with a sharper muzzle and less pendulous ears.

But its feet were as strongly webbed and its habits as aquatic as those of the "Newfoundland" of the modern breed.

Some people have noticed the resemblance between the farmers' dogs in Norway and the Newfoundland type, and have thought that the latter may not be altogether of wolf extraction, but be descended from the dogs brought from Norway and Iceland by the Norse adventurers who visited Newfoundland in the tenth and eleventh centuries.] On the Pacific coast there were other types of domestic dog, resembling greatly breeds that are found in eastern Asia and the Pacific islands.

Some of these were naked, and others grew silky hair, which was woven by the natives into cloth (see p.

323).