122 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



selves there or near the northern point where the Indians afterward 

 had their annually occupied settlement, and close at hand are the 

 cliffs, on one of which they caught Thorhall worshipping- Thor, and 

 over which they may have cast the fragments of whale-flesh &quot; on the 

 rocks.&quot; 



It was most natural that Norsemen should be deceived by the 

 bountiful mild season into the belief that they need not provide 

 against winter, since they felt themselves in Leif s country, which was 

 said to be like Africa. De Monts colonists on an island of the St. 

 Croix, flowing into the same bay, though far better provided in 

 every respect, had a most discouraging and even ghastly winter. 

 Their best man, Champlain, 1 appositely declares : 



It would be very difficult to ascertain the character of this region without 

 spending a winter in it ; for on arriving here in summer everything is very 

 agreeable, in consequence of the woods, fine country and the many varieties of 

 good fish which are found there. There are six months of winter in this 

 country. 



The summer advantages could never have been greater than when 

 the Norsemen came. When winter struck them and the game had 

 withdrawn to a distance and the snow impeded their landward travel, 

 it was not unnatural that they should shift to the great island, where 

 fish and amphibious animals W 7 ere closer at hand, also from which 

 the land animals could not well escape. Moose were found on it 

 in the boyhood of an elderly resident, who talked with me, and there 

 are still some deer, though partly at least of late reintroduction. 

 It ought to have been easy to arrange a drive of animals toward 

 some corner of the cliffs and supply themselves with meat ; and 

 when it was not possible to fish outside there were (and are) trout 

 in the brooks, also eels, on which the Indians afterward depended, 

 in a string of ponds, the most northerly and best known of which is 

 in the wilderness between the old Indian site (now a hamlet of 

 fishers and dulse gatherers) and the prosperous village of North 

 Head. There could be no lack of good fresh water. 



The migration to the island seems a wise move, and perhaps did 

 more than anything else to carry them through without the deaths and 

 disabling maladies of Champlain s companions. Their stock also 

 lived, and throve, probably on birch-twigs, dried fish (for Norwegian 

 cattle are said to make the best of such winter fare) and the half dry 

 grasses and other vegetable survivals of the springy inland hollows 

 and southeastern marshes. The sea never freezes there and the tide 

 would always wash up or lay bare something that might be of service. 



1 Voyages of Champlain. Original Narratives of Early American History. 



