Norsemen’s route from Greenland to Wineland. 187 
it (the axe) broke. They then threw it away, as it seemed useless to them, 
it not being able to resist stone.” 
In this account there are some few points of geographical importance 
and some few others of ethnographic interest. Let us first contemplate 
some of the geographical points. 
The strangers came from the south, and rowed away again towards 
the south, as they appeared round a ness, and disappeared again behind 
this ness. Therefore they came from the sea, and each time from a cer- 
tain side. This agrees well with the conditions near St. Thomas, pre- 
suming that the natives came from the St. Lawrence River proper. 
Along this river Cartier first found inhabited parts of any importance 
near what is now Quebec. The ness where the strangers appeared can 
either have been the southern point at the mouth of the H6p, or the 
point lying a few km further south, which is now called St. Thomas 
Point. I am not inclined to dare adhere to either the one or the other 
by anticipation, but observations made in the place itself would probably 
enable one to decide the question with comparative certainty. 
Karlsefni’s booths lay above the lake. Here the question arises 
as to whether it was north or south of the mouth of Rivière du Sud. 
Of course it is difficult to say anything certain about this. If, meanwhile, 
we take it for granted that the later town of St. Thomas has been founded 
on the most inviting side of the river mouth, and, on the whole, on the 
most inviting spot in the landscape round the old H6p, then we dare 
suppose that Karlsefni made a similar choice, and placed his booths 
on the southern side, or somewhere along the place where the town now 
lies. This also seems to agree best with the whole scenery, and with the 
story relating thereto of the terrified Norsemen retreating along the 
river until they came to some rocks. However, an inspection of the place 
itself could perhaps settle the question. 
The Norsemen had their cattle with them, and these were in the 
open air the whole winter, as no snow came. If this last remark is not 
an embellishing exaggeration, it must fortuitously have been a winter 
with uncommonly little snow for these regions. It is not improbable 
that the cattle could have remained out during the winter — in Iceland 
the cattle remain out even if there is frost and snow — but I will assume 
that the remark concerning the snow is either an exaggeration or a later 
recorder’s own suggestion. It has already been pointed out by others, 
that were the climatic report on Wineland taken too literally the Norse- 
men must have been incredibly far to the south on the east coast of North 
America. 
We now come to the more ethnographic side of the matter. There 
are things in this which evidently are due to misconstruction on the 
part of the Norsemen; but assuredly there are correct observations, and 
there are some little features which clearly have the stamp of genuine- 
ness, as they so vividly remind one of the experiences which later Euro- 
