156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wise reported the finding of rude stone instruments, to which must be 

 added other finds from Guanajuato, Rio Juchipila, and other Mexican 

 localities. 



This leads at once into the interesting argument how far any exist- 

 ing people are the descendants and representatives of man of the post- 

 Glacial period. The problem whether the present Esquimaux are such 

 a remnant of an early race is one which Professor Boyd Dawkins has 

 long worked at, and will, I trust, bring forward with full detail in this 

 appropriate place. Since he stated this view in his work on " Cave- 

 Hunting " it has continually been cited, whether by way of affirmation 

 or denial, but always with that gain to the subject which arises from a 

 theory based on distinct facts. May I take occasion here to mention 

 as preliminary the question, were the natives met with by the Scandi- 

 navian seafarers of the eleventh century Esquimaux, and whereabout 

 on the coast were they actually found ? It may be to Canadians a cu- 

 rious subject of contemplation how about that time of history Scandi- 

 navia stretched out its hands at once to their old and their new home. 

 When the race of bold sea-rovers who ruled Normandy and invaded 

 England turaed their prows into the northern and western sea, they 

 passed from Iceland to yet more inclement Greenland, and thence, ac- 

 cording to Icelandic records, which are too consistent to be refused 

 belief as to main facts, they sailed some way down the American coast. 

 But where are we to look for the most southerly points which the sagas 

 mention as reached in Vincland ? Where was Keel-ness, where Thor- 

 vald's ship ran aground, and Cross-ness, where he was buried, when he 

 died by the skrdlhig''s arrow ? Rafn, in the " Antiquitates Americance," 

 confidently maps out these places about the promontory of Cape Cod, 

 in Massachusetts, and this has been repeated since from book to book. 

 I must plead guilty to having cited Rafn's map before now, but when 

 with reference to the present meeting I consulted our learned editor of 

 Scandinavian records at Oxford, Mr. Gudbrand Vigfusson, and after- 

 ward went through the original passages in the sagas with Mr, York 

 Powell, I am bound to say that the voyages of the Northmen ought to 

 be reduced to more moderate limits. It appears that they crossed from 

 Greenland to Labrador (Helluland), and thence sailing more or less 

 south and west, in two stretches of two days each they came to a place 

 near where wild grapes grew, whence they called the country Vine- 

 land. This would, therefore, seem to have been somewhere about 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and it would be an interesting object for a 

 yachting-cruise to try down from the east coast of Labrador a fair 

 four days' sail of a viking-ship, and identify, if possible, the sound be- 

 tween the island and the 7iess, the river running out of the lake into 

 the sea, the long stretches of sand, and the other local features men- 

 tioned in the sagas. While this is in the printer's hands, I hear that 

 a paper somewhat to this same effect may come before the Geographi- 

 cal Section, but the matter concerns us here as bearing on the southern 



