LOST COLONIES OF NORTHMEN AND PORTUGUESE. 43 



Island theory, in order to explain the presence of Eskimos so far south, 

 have started the hypothesis that the Skraellings at the beginning of the 

 eleventh century inhabited the eastern coast of North America as far 

 south as Rhode Island, but were driven into the Arctic regions by the 

 races now found on the sea-coast. Not a particle of evidence can be ad- 



duced to support this idea, and the authorities cited by Rafn disprove 

 it, for an Icelandic geographer describes the more northern country, 

 Furderstrands, as too cold for human habitations, and as bounded on 

 the south by Skraellingsland. Their home, therefore, was then, as it 

 still is, Labrador. 



Fi'om the various accounts given by Rafn, I prepared a map, show- 



