THE FLETCHER STONE — WEBSTER. 213 



from the Chegoggin Salt Pond — a very insignificant and inter- 

 mittent one ; and which might not exist at all, if the harbour 

 were stretched to what Mr. Brown gives as its former extent. 

 One circumstance mentioned in the narratives, however, shows 

 pretty conclusively that Yarmouth Harbour could not have been 

 Karlsefne's fiord : a party, sent in a northerly direction from 

 here to find Vinland, Lief's wintering-place, had got a consider- 

 able distance on their way, when a westerly gale blew them over 

 to Ireland. Now if one went northerly from the mouth of Yar- 

 mouth Harbour, he would go up the Bay of Fundy ; and a west 

 wind would only drive him onto the Nova Scotian side of the 

 Bay. And Ireland is not west of Yarmouth : but of Lal)rador, 

 four or five hundred mile further north. 



I think, then, we must regard these attempts to show the iden- 

 tity of either Lief's wintering-place, or the fiord, and Yarmouth 

 Harbour, as futile. Instead of the syllogism reading, "It is probable 

 from their narratives that the Northmen were at Yarmouth ; the 

 Fletcher Stone inscription can be made to read so and so in 

 Runes ; there was a man of like name to one mentioned in the 

 inscription, in the expedition, the account of which renders it 

 probable that they were at Yarmouth ; therefore it is very pro- 

 bable that the Fletcher inscription is the work of these North- 

 men," we should read it — " It is improbable from the nai'ratives 

 that the Northmen were at Yarmouth : the inscription cannot be 

 made to read anything in Runes, and therefore, whether there 

 was such and such a man or not, it is very improbable that the 

 Fletcher Stone inscription is the work of Northmen." 



The next possible authors of such a thing as this inscription in 

 Nova Scotia would be the French, who passed the Forked Cape, 

 Cape Fourchu, in 1G04 ; and who had, before a great many years, 

 a thriving settlement all along the Cheggogin River, only a few 

 miles from the spot where the stone was found. But though 

 possible, it is certainly very improbable that they made the inscrip- 

 tion ; and we may, I think, dismiss their claim without discussion. 



Then, if we reject the claims of the Aborigines, of the Phoeni- 

 cians, Northmen and French, we must of necessity attribute the 

 inscription to the later English, for it certainly was not made 



