LOST COLONIES OF NORTHMEN AND PORTUGUESE. 45 



surrounds the whole earth." This is the " River Ocean " of Homer, 

 and is used in the Eddas as the name of the watery wastes of Chaos. 



Bjarne's voyage to Vinland seems to have really taken place, and 

 to have been accurately described. The accounts of subsequent voy- 

 ages appear to have been based on Bjarne's, and to be as nearly as 

 possible mere transcripts of it reversed. In 906 Bjarne sailed from 

 Iceland to Greenland, but "after three days' sailing, . . . the land was 

 out of sight under the water," he was driven southward by north 

 winds, with foggy weather for many days. At length he once more 

 saw the sun, and having sailed one day more he sighted land. As 

 the wind had changed from north to southwest, in which quarter it 

 remained steady, it is evident that the northerly gale went round 

 with the sun, i. e., to the east, then to the south, and then to south- 

 west. Had the wind " backed " to the west and southwest, the weather 

 would have been continued unsettled. Hence we conclude that Bjarne's 

 vessel was driven to the banks of Newfoundland, where fogs constantly 

 prevail, whence, the wind veering to the east, south, and southwest, he 

 was driven into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland. 

 The land he first saw was " without mountains, and covered with wood, 

 and had small heights." It was on his larboard side, and was probably 

 one of the Magdalen Islands, or possibly the eastern end of Prince 

 Edward Island. Afterward they sailed two days, when they saw " a 

 flat land covered with wood." This may have been the northwest 

 coast of Newfoundland near the west end of the Strait of Belleisle, 

 which for a long distance is marked on Bayfield's chart as a "low 

 limestone coast." I am informed that there are woods on it, though 

 they may be small compared with the vast forests that are found up 

 the rivers, whence extensive lumbering operations are now being car- 

 ried on. Bjarne then put to sea for three days, with a southwesterly 

 wind, and saw a third land, which was " high and covered with mount- 

 ains and ice-hills." They coasted along it, and "saw it was an island." 

 They probably sighted Labrador, and, rounding its southeast point, 

 supposed it to be an island. Thence they sailed with the same favor- 

 able southwesterly wind (which grew into a gale) for four days, when 

 they sighted a " fourth land, which was Greenland." 



Leif's voyage to Vinland seems, as nearly as possible, a version 

 of Bjarne's reversed. Neither time nor bearings are given, and we 

 are merely told that Leif " found the land first which Bjarne had 

 found last." * They saw no grass there. " Great icebergs were over 

 all up the country, but like a plain of flat stones was all from the 

 sea to the mountains." This they called Helluland. They then sailed 

 thence and found another land which was " flat and covered with 

 wood, and white sands were far around where they went, and the 



* In the account of the Saga of Eric the Red, of Karlsefne's voyage, it is simply 

 stated that he sailed to Vinland. The Icelandic Saga of a later date was less cautious, 

 and gives many impossible courses. 



