8 DISCOVERIES OF 1001. 



German, who was one of the crew, in strolling 

 into the woods, met with wild grapes, which he 

 informed the Scandinavian navioators were such 

 as, in his country, were used to make wine, 

 upon which they gave to the island the name of 

 Vinland. 



The latitude deduced from the observation of 

 the length of day, supposing it to be correct, would 

 point out some of the rivers on the eastern coast of 

 Newfoundland as the spot on which the adven- 

 turers wintered, several of which rivers take their 

 rise in lakes ; or it w ould equally answer to the 

 coast of Canada, near the mouth of the river St. 

 Lawrence. It is now known that vines grow wild 

 in various parts of Canada, some of them pleasant 

 to the taste and agreeable to the eye, such as the 

 Hjitis labrusca, vulpina, and arborea;^ but whether , 

 any species may grow on Newfoundland, wx know so 

 little of the interior, or even of its shores, that, after 

 a settlement of more than two hundred years, no 

 attempt has yet been made to collect a Flora of the 

 island. But it is by no means necessary to sup- 

 pose that the fruit found by the German was the 

 grape. TVunb<^r or mn-ber (wine-berry)t is the 

 generic name, among the nations where the grape 

 was not known, for the i^ibesia and grossularia 

 (the various species of currants and gooseberries) ; 



* Forster's Northern Discoveries. 



t Dr. Percy — Trandation of Mallet's Northern Antiquities, 



