166 H. P. STEENSBY. 
the westerly or easterly coasts of Newfoundland, until from the south- 
westerly point of the island he could cross Cabot Strait to Nova Scotia. 
When superficially surveyed, this is a thought that can seem reason- 
able when sitting in front of a map, especially if the map be on a small 
scale, but it cannot stand critical geographical investigation. Fridtjof 
Nansen has already strongly asserted this, since he says: “But sup- 
pose all the same he reached Newfoundland (Markland ?) in this manner, 
and that he again put out to sea instead of following the coast, how was 
he to know that this time he was to keep to the west instead of sailing 
in an easterly direction? But he must have done so, in order to be able 
to reach Cape Breton or Nova Scotia; and he must have been there, 
if we in some measure are to have a connected whole.” 
Even if Karlsefni did reach Newfoundland’s south-westerly point, 
he could not have known that just in a set west-south-westerly direc- 
tion lay a country 92 km away, on the other side of the water which we 
now call Cabot Strait. 
There is no absolute geographic likelihood of first Leif and afterwards 
Karlsefni having actually crossed Cabot Strait from Newfoundland. 
Added to this, it would not agree with the account of the saga to 
assume that such a big seaway as Cabot Strait had been crossed. There 
is no allusion to anything of the sort. On the contrary, it is distinctly 
written that it was coasting they undertook from Markland further 
south. We are thus obliged to admit that the Norsemen after having 
visited the coast of Bjarney [1. e. Newfoundland] continued coasting south- 
west along the south coast of Labrador. 
“Thence [i. e. from Markland] they sailed for a long time southwards 
along the land, and came to a promontory. The country lay to star- 
board; there were extensive sandy stretches of beach. They rowed to 
the land and found on a promontory the keel of a ship, and named it 
Kjalarnes [i. e. keelness]; and the shores they called Furdustrands, 
since it was a long sail along them. 
The country now became intersected by fjords [“vagskorit”], and 
they sailed the ships into an indentation.” 
Markland must then be the continental side of the Strait of Belle 
Isle and the adjacent regions. This also agrees very well with regard to 
the plant-geography. In central Labrador the forests stretch far up 
towards Ungava Bay, but towards the north-east the forest-limit swings 
south into the country, following the coast-lme for some distance. It 
is south of Hamilton Fjord that tree vegetation first begins to appear 
in the region of the fjords. The trees, however, are low to begin with 
on the north-east coast, and the forests are somewhat scattered or thicket- 
like. In the regions near the Strait of Belle Isle we already find fairly 
pronounced coniferous- and birch forests, and this vegetation is there- 
after typical for the south coast of Labrador, except in places where the 
soil is rocky or where it is too damp and boggy. To this must be added, 
