VIII.] CELTIC TRACES. 107 



Froda than of her brother Snorre of Helgafell." Wherefore 

 it is conjectured that this man was Bjorn, the son of Astrand, 

 Champion of Breidavik. 



After this, Madam, I hope I shall never hear you depre- 

 ciate the constancy of men. Thured had better have married 

 Bjorn after all ! 



I forgot to mention that when Gudlief landed on the 

 strange coast, it seemed to him that the inhabitants spoke 

 Irish. Now, there are many antiquaries inclined to believe 

 in the former existence of an Irish colony to the southward 

 of the Vinland of the Northmen. Scattered through the 

 Sagas are several notices of a distant country in the West, 

 which is called Ireland ed Mekla — Great Ireland, or the 

 White Man's land. When Pizarro penetrated into the heart 

 of Mexico, a tradition already existed of the previous arrival 

 of white men from the East. Among the Shawnasee Indians 

 a story is still preserved of Florida having been once inhabited 

 by white men, who used iron instruments. In 165S, Sir 

 Erland the Priest had in his possession a chart, even then 

 thought ancient, of "The Land of the White Men, or 

 Hibernia Major, situated opposite Vinland the Good ; ' ; and 

 Gaelic philologists pretend to trace a remarkable affinity 

 between many of the American-Indian dialects and the 

 ancient Celtic. 



But to return to the " Foam" After passing the cape, 

 away we went across the spacious Brieda Fiord, at the rate 

 of nine or ten knots an hour, reeling and bounding at the 

 heels of the steamer, which seemed scarcely to feel how 

 uneven was the surface across which we were speeding. 

 Down dropped Snaefell beneath the s£a, and dim before us, 

 clad in evening haze, rose the shadowy steeps of Bardestrand. 

 The north-west division of Iceland consists of one huge 

 peninsula, spread out upon the sea like a human hand, the 

 fingers just reaching over the Arctic circle ; while up between 

 them run the gloomy fiords, sometimes to the length of 

 twenty, thirty, and even forty miles. Anything more grand 

 and mysterious than the appearance of their solemn portals, 



