hxii NOTES. 



C 361 ) p. 231. Compare Humboldt, Examen crit. de FHist. de la Ge'ograw 

 phie, T. i. p. viii. and xii. 



(5 62 ) p. 233. Parts of America were seen, but not landed on, 14 year* 

 before Leif Eireksson, in the voyage which Bjame Herj'ilfson undertook from 

 Greenland to the southward in 986. He first saw the land at the island of 

 Nantucket, a degree south of Boston ; then in Nova Scotia ; and, lastly, in 

 Newfoundland, which was subsequently called " Litla Helluland," but never 

 " Vinland." The gulf which divides Newfoundland from the mouth of tht 

 great river St. Lawrence was called by the northmen settled in Iceland and 

 Greenland, Markland Gulf. See Caroli Christiani Rafn, Antiquitates Ame- 

 ricana;, 1845, p. 4, 421, 423, and 463. 



(5 63 ) p. 233. Gunnbjorn was wrecked, in 876 or 877, on the rocks sub- 

 sequently called by his name, which were lately rediscovered by Captain 

 Graah. It was Gunnbjorn who first saw the east coast of Greenland, but 

 without landing upon it. (Rafn, Autiquit. Amer. p. 11, 93, and 304.) 



( M ) p. 234. Kosmos, Bd. ii S. 163 (Engl. trans. Vol. ii. p. 129). 



C 3 " 5 ) p. 234. These mean annual temperatures of the east coast of America, 

 between the parallels of 42 25' and 41 15', correspond in Europe to the 

 latitudes of Berlin and Paris, places situated 8 or 10 more to the north. 

 Moreover, on this coast the decrease of mean annual temperature from lower 

 to higher latitudes is so rapid that, in the interval of latitude between Boston 

 and Philadelphia, which is 2 41', an increase of a degree of latitude cor- 

 responds to a decrease in the mean annual temperature of almost 2 of the 

 Centigrade thermometer; whereas, in the European system of isothermal 

 lines, the same difference of latitude, according to my researches, barely cor- 

 responds to a decrease of half a degree of temperature, (Asie centrale, T. iii. 

 p. 227). 



( 366 ) p. 234. See Carmen Fseroicum in quo Vinlandise mentio fit, (Rafn, 

 Autiquit. Amer. p. 320 and 332). 



t 367 ) p. 235. The Runic stone was placed on the highest point of the 

 Island of Kingiktorsoak " on the Saturday before the day of victory," i. e. 

 before the 21st of April, a great Heathen festival of the ancient Scandinavians, 

 which, at their reception of Christianity, was converted into a Christian 

 festival. Rafn, Antiquit. Amer. p. 347 355. On the doubts which Bryn- 

 julfsen, Mohnike, and Klaproth have expressed respecting the Runic numbers, 

 see my Examen crit. T. ii. p. 97 101 ; yet, from other indications, Bryn- 

 julfseu and Graah regard the important monument on the Women's Isknds 

 (as well as the Runic inscriptions found at Igalikko and Egegeit, lat. 60 51* 



