M INTRODUCTION. 



tact, buried in the ocean water, forbid an exact inquiry 

 regarding its actual position. That the island in question 

 has been there, about the time mentioned, facts forbid us 

 to disbelieve ; whilst its fearful disappearance very naturally 

 prevents the rarely passing stranger from exploring the 

 actual depths thereabouts, in order to determine the danger- 

 ous circumstances of the ground. 



Qusere ? May not this land of Buss so sunken bear some 

 probable reference to the Old or Lost Greenland, or the 

 Atalantis of the Greek writers ? It would not be easy to 

 disprove this. 



It certainly must appear matter of surprise, that the name 

 of those countries should still be Greenland, though even in 

 less or more degree the peculiar scene of snow and ice. 

 The accounts, on which popular belief has hitherto rested, 

 inform the public by making a comparison between those 

 regions and the island of Iceland, whence the early navi- 

 gators sailed westward. Strange, that at a time when some 

 imaginary hero, worthy of Runic record, some such man as 

 Flokko is reported to have been, did not direct his 

 followers to a place of such natural importance as West 

 Friesland must have been, so contiguous, and so much 

 towards the genial south. We must conclude, that the 

 island so designated, the Atalantis of the Greeks, or the 

 famed Ultima Thule, should have stood in more note than 

 to escape the observation of men saiHng for strange and 



