186 DESCRirTION OF GREENLAND. 



view which did not seem to us sufficiently different with re- 

 spect to each to cause this difference of colour. It reminds 

 me of those lines of Virgil, where he speaks of the frozen 

 zones in the following words : — 



"Coerulea glacie concretfe, atque imbribus atris." 



But I think that Ccrvilea glacies ought to be taken in this 

 place for black ice, such as Virgil has figured to himself in 

 the black and dark countries ; as where the poet says in ano- 

 ther j^lace : — 



" Olli coeruleus supra caput adstitit imber." 



And also : — 



'' Stant manibus ara3 

 " Cocruleis msesta; vittis atraque cupresso." 



To return to our subject. Before undertaking anything 

 upon the continent, Eric the Ked thought fit to recon- 

 noitre the island and landed there. He gave it the name of 

 Ericsun, which means the Island of Eric, and remained 

 there all the winter. When spring came he left the island 

 for the continent, which he called Groenland, that is to say, 

 Greenland, because of the verdure of its pasturage and of its 

 trees. He landed at a port which he called Ericsfiorden, 

 that is to say, the Port of Eric, and not far from this port he 

 constructed a dwelling, which he named Ostrebug, or the 

 building of the East. The following autumn he went to the 

 western coast, where he built another dwelling and called 

 it Vestrebug, or building of the West. But, either because 

 the climate of the continent appeared to him colder and more 

 severe than that of his own island, or that he found less 

 safety there, he returned the next winter to Ericsun. In the 

 summer following he again went to the continent, and pro- 

 ceeded to the north coast to the foot of a large rock, which 

 he called Snefiel, or rock of snow. And discovered a port, 

 to which he gave the name of Ravensfiord, that is, the port 

 of the crows, from the number of crows he found there. 



