﻿128 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



of course above the Cape, which were all the villagers had to sell, 

 " for they preserve only such furs as they need for their garments." 

 He also mentions " robes and furs," and no nakedness, at points far- 

 ther north. It is like comparing the costumes of a temperate and a 

 tropical zone, though of course the real difference was much less. 



It is not denied that Verrazano tells of visits by deerskin clad 

 " Kings " in Narragansett Bay, nor that Champlain says of the 

 Nauset women " When they came to see us they wore robes which 

 were open in front. I saw among other things a girl with her hair 

 very neatly dressed with a red-colored skin and bordered on the upper 

 part with little shell beads." But full dress is never a daily habit 

 at all hours nor a measure of climatic requirements ; and a jacket 

 open in front plus a bead-trimmed turban, with nothing more above 

 the waist, can hardly be called overwarm in the way of a visiting 

 costume. 



The precise border-line between the regions of habitual clothing 

 and approximate nudity (for everyday wear) may have shifted a little 

 during the six centuries between the dates of Thorfinn and Champlain 

 by reason of the descent and dwindling of Cape Cod and possible con- 

 sequent changes in the course and interaction of oceanic currents. 

 But there does not seem to have been much difference during nearly 

 four centuries that have followed ; and probably there was little 

 before. Whether the New Hampshire and lower Maine coast were 

 a little warmer or a little chillier in 1003 than in 1605 or 191 1, it is 

 altogether likely that the buckskin-shirted victims died above Cape 

 Ann, though perhaps below the Kennebec. At a later period this 

 would be the place to find Almachouqui Algonquians ; and perhaps 

 this is the best guess we can make about them ; but it remains a guess 

 only. 



On the earlier downward passage to Hop, Thorfinn would seem 

 to have briefly followed the coast, say as far as Mount Desert, and 

 then struck across the Gulf of Maine, thus sailing chiefly on a more 

 eastern course than if he had followed the shore all the way. This 

 crossing might be to or around Cape Cod, or, less probably, to lower 

 Maine. Birds in migration during two seasons, 1 and other signs not 

 to be missed by the watchfulness of a very well-skilled early naviga- 

 tor, would have set him on that more direct water-road. Even the brief 

 tracing of the nearer shore would not necessarily be carried into 

 practice, for he had nothing to gain by it, aiming so far away. 



1 See account by Columbus of his first voyage for the aid thus given the 

 Genoese in finding the Azores. 



