130 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



and just how loosely they made the comparison, it is impossible to 

 estimate more nearly. The application of the distance measure as a 

 means of identification is not obvious unless the elevations were 

 thought of as visible from both sides of a peninsula. This would put 

 Hop in Nova Scotia as Dr. Storm tried to do ; but the climate, the 

 absence of large wild grapes and the fact that Hop was a long way 

 below Straumey (Grand Manan) all forbid. Moreover the highest 

 elevations in Nova Scotia, the Cobequid hills, though doubtless visible 

 from the Gulf side, have only a maximum height of 1 100 feet ; and are 

 a long way from the Atlantic shore, with, also in part, the upper 

 arms of the Bay of Fundy between. If we carry the mountains in 

 question up to the lower ridge of the western horn of Cape Breton, 

 we pack nearly all the sites of the saga impossibly near to each other, 

 we dispense with the distinctive violent currents of Straumey and 

 the pleasing conditions of Hop and we make the interval so slight 

 that the party might have walked easily^across or sent messengers, 

 and could not possibly have felt themselves astray in a remote and 

 dangerous region as they did. Also the Uniped or his friends would 

 have followed them ; but nobody menaced them on Straumey nor in 

 their mainland home on the shore of the bay beyond Straumfiord, so 

 far as w r e know. It must not be overlooked, however, that the state 

 ment of distances from Straumfiord occurs in one version only and 

 may be a conjectural explanation by some saga-man of several cen 

 turies later. 



Of course there must have been something unique about this one- 

 footer, who fled so fast after shooting so deadly. Perhaps he was a 

 wandering Eskimo with a kayak hidden in that &quot; creek &quot; where he 

 vanished. If he sprang into that odd little craft and shot out of sight 

 with the tapering rear end of the boat reaching back from his waist, 

 and if this were their first clear view of him after woodland glimpses, 

 the picture might have impressed them in that way, making them 

 hurry out of a land of sorcery and death. 



Lescarbot, 1 after describing a kayak as &quot; all covered with leather &quot; 

 except &quot; one hole in the midst where the man putteth himself on his 

 knees,&quot; adds very appositely : &quot; I believe that the fables of the sirens 

 and mermaids come from the dunces esteeming that they were fishes, 

 both men and women.&quot; In other words, he recognized that the rear 

 part of the kayak might well be taken for a single member, a tail. 

 If an Eskimo thus ensconced may be taken for a merman, why not 

 for a &quot; one-footer? &quot; At least, I am not aware of any other explana 

 tion which is equally reasonable. 



Nova Francia. Eronclelle s transl., p. 231. 



