CONCLUSION. 145 



to be deflected by the tangential current we have mentioned to the coast of Ireland 

 or Norway, 



Besides the parallel currents we have mentioned, there is a narrow polar current 

 from Baffin's Bay passing in part between the Gulf Stream and the American 

 coast, and which probably bore the Icelandic navigators to Labrador and to New 

 England. 



" From present knowledge of currents, we can hardly be justified in the suppo- 

 sition that South America was peopled from Asia by vessels being driven south of 

 the Equator to the American shores. The distance by that route (west-wind 

 region south of the S. E. Trades) is not less than 10,000 miles without any 

 islands, except New Zealand, for a resting place. The route by the Aleutian 

 Islands, with the North Pacific 'Gulf Stream' is a much more probable route." 1 



From tbe foregoing view, it appears that both the winds and the currents favor 

 an approach to this continent ; and there seems to be no reason in the nature of 

 things why both oceans may not from time to time have poured their casual and 

 perhaps irreclaimable contributions on our shores. 



Not many instances have been recorded of chance arrivals upon the European 

 coasts from the western hemisphere. Some however may be mentioned in con- 

 nection with a few illustrations of the general tendencies of the ocean currents. 



Humboldt says : " There are well authenticated proofs, however much the facts 

 may have been called in question, that natives of America (probably Eskimaux 

 from Greenland or Labrador) were carried by currents or streams from the north- 

 west to our own (the eastern) continent. James Wallace relates that in the year 

 1082 a Greenlander in his canoe was seen on the southern extremity of the Island 

 of Eda by many persons, who could not, however, succeed in reaching him. In 

 1084, a Greenland fisherman appeared near the Island of Westram. In the church 

 at Burra, there was suspended an Eskimaux boat which had been driven on the 

 shore." " In Cardinal Bembo's History of Venice I find it stated, that in the year 

 1508 a small boat manned by seven persons of a foreign aspect was captured near 

 the English coast by a French ship. The description given of them applies per- 

 fectly to the form of the Eskimaux. Six of these men perished during the voyage 

 and the seventh, a youth, was presented to the king of France." 2 



The men called Indians that appeared on the coasts of Germany in the tenth and 

 twelfth centuries, and the stranded dark-colored men given to Metellus Celer by 

 the king of the Suevi (see ante, p. 7) are supposed to have been natives of Labra- 

 dor. The corpses of men of a peculiar race, having very broad faces, are said to 

 have confirmed Columbus in his belief of the existence of countries situated in the 

 west. 



The mainmast of the English ship of war, the Tilbury, which was destroyed by 

 fire near St. Domingo, was carried by the Gulf Stream to the northern coasts of 

 Scotland; and casks of palm oil from the wreck of an English ship on a rock off 

 Cape Lopez, in Africa, were carried to Scotland, having followed the equinoxial 



Schoolcraft's Hist, and Prosp., &c. I. pp. 23-f>. ' "Views of Nature," p. 123. 



19 



