g6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



sometimes been put to similar use." It is hard to believe that any 

 birch, however contorted in grain, can equal bird's-eye maple ; but 

 no doubt these practical lovers of beautiful things were in no way 

 concerned as to whether it were one or the other, provided it answered 

 their requirements. They would classify by ornamental effect, and 

 name it according to their classifying. But even if we were to accept 

 canoe birch as the true and only " mausur," Leif might still have 

 obtained it almost anywhere from Long Island to Nova Scotia. 

 Besides, we do not know that he cut his prize in the same " land " 

 where he gathered grapes. He visited " lands " and brought home 

 these specimens ; that is all. 



We have no further clue. He touched a country of warmth and 

 plenty, where wild fox-grapes abounded. The other products which 

 he found were proper to that territory, although they may have 

 been picked up beyond it. From allusions later in the saga, and 

 statements elsewhere, we learn that he named this region Wineland, 

 but not necessarily with any reference to goodness or blessedness 

 except so far as he may have held wine to be good and blest. 



Dr. Nansen discredits this achievement of Leif, though accepting 

 the saga's previous statement that he sailed from Greenland directly 

 to the Hebrides and Norway, and applauding it as among the greatest 

 of nautical exploits. But surely this bold navigator would be the 

 very man to attempt a repetition of the feat, sailing the other way ; 

 and what could be more natural than his storm-driven landfall on an 

 unexpected shore? We do not need to go into mythology or folk- 

 tales for precedents ; such incidents are there also because they first 

 happened to men in reality ; and they keep on happening. When that 

 which began as fact occurs as fact again, it cannot reasonably be 

 impeached by any intervening or parallel play of fancy. 



Leif s items are meager, but so far as they go they are absolutely 

 corroborative. Evidently someone visited our coast somewhere 

 between Casco Bay and the Chesapeake, touching also at Newfound- 

 land and Labrador. Whether the voyager were Leif, or Biarni, or 

 another may not be practically important, but Leif is named as 

 discoverer in the best accredited saga, and we may as well adhere 

 to him until a more plausible candidate is found. 



i 3 ._WITH THORFINN AND GUDRID TO THE BAY 



OF FUNDY 



A glance at a map of these regions shows two methods of approach 

 to mainland America from southern Greenland the direct route over 

 sea and the slow but nearly safe and sure northwestern journey along 



