observer to whom the sight was unusual. Farther on the 

 Saga reads: 



"A great multitude of Skraeling boats were discovered 

 approaching from the south, and all their staves waved in a di- 

 rection contrary to the sun." The apparent contradiction is 

 easily explained. In the first case the kayaks were seen approach- 

 ing from the north and in the second case from the south, when 

 the apparent motion of the kayak paddles would be reversed. 



Certain writers have attempted to associate this description 

 of the Skraelings with the Beothuks or the Micmac Indians 

 but the description of "skin canoes" and revolving paddles 

 would not apply in this region to any other people than the 

 Eskimo. 



The difficulty of finding the Eskimo as far south as Vinland 

 is not great, when we remember that in the sixteenth century 

 they inhabited the north shore of the St. Lawrence and might 

 have extended their wanderings farther south at an earlier 

 period. Weapons closely resembling those used by the Eskimo 

 have been dug up in Ontario^ and New York State.^ The 

 specimens in the Beothuk collection in the museum at St. Johns, 

 said to be from the Newfoundland coast, show a strong Eskimo 

 influence. In each case this influence may be due to cultural 

 borrowing by neighbouring tribes, but when we remember the 

 summer visits of the Labrador Eskimo to the north of New- 

 foundland, it is not unlikely that a party may have been seen 

 by the Norsemen, particularly as the location of this description 

 has never been definitely ascertained to be farther south. 



EARLY RELATIONS WITH THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH. 



The next historical trace of the Labrador Eskimo is to 

 be found in the account of the voyage of John Cabot. He saw 

 some of the inhabitants of the new land he discovered (presum- 

 ably Labrador), and brought back "snares for game and needles 

 for making nets." Harisse, the foremost authority on the early 

 exploration of Labrador, considers that these are Eskimo 



' Wintemberg, Bone and harpoon heads of the Ontario Indians, Archaeological Report of 

 the Provincial Museum, Toronto, 1905. 



' Verbal information from Alanson Skinner, Mus. of the Am. Indian. 



