124 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



latitudes, lived in comfort and held the whole party together. This 

 seems to be his worst mistake, and Champlain has accounted for 

 it abundantly. 



I made diligent search and inquiry on Grand Manan, also inquired 

 a little in Eastport, and it seems clear that there are no grapes worth 

 mentioning about Passamaquoddy Bay, nor indeed anywhere near the 

 Bay of Fundy. Southern New England is their farthest northern 

 home in quantities and of size to be useful. 



The sea-fishing, so particularly stated in the saga, is still the 

 prime resource of the Passamaquoddy region including Grand Manan, 

 In fact, except hay-making, there is hardly another resource of general 

 value. Two or three thousand people of the island live by fishing 

 in more than decent comfort, while on the nearby mainland there has 

 been built up at Lubec the chief American center of one branch of this 

 industry. 



Considering the many coincidences of the present and past facts 

 with the items of the saga and the absence of any real objection, it 

 seems that Grand Manan and Passamaquoddy Bay with the strait be- 

 tween them may be accepted provisionally as Straumey and Straum- 

 fiord. But even if we err as to the exact places named in the saga, it 

 seems practically certain that these were not far from the sweeping 

 tides of Fundy. The Icelanders could not come into this region with- 

 out observing them, and how could they pass by, giving such titles 

 to lesser examples of the same kind ? The verbal distinction between 

 stream and current, sometimes suggested, must in this conection be 

 regarded as overstrained. Besides, the official chart in its " rips " 

 and " eddies " offers an abundance of " stream," and Dr. Fewkes 

 characterizes them clearly in his zoological paper already cited. 



It may be well to consider as an alternative, Long Island on the 

 opposite side of the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, and the narrow 

 passage, now St. Mary's Bay, between it and the mainland of Nova 

 Scotia, where Champlain found a violent and dangerous current. But 

 the island seems too close to the mainland for the language of the 

 saga, since the passage could be easily and promptly made at any 

 season ; and it is hardly a sufficiently distinguishable " region." 



15. THE EXPEDITION TO HOP 



After the departure of Thorhall the Hunter, and Thorfinn's 

 decision " to proceed southward along the land and to the eastward," 

 the saga says : 1 



1 A. M. Reeves: The Finding of Wineland the Good. Translation of saga 

 continued. See footnotes. 



