OCEANIC DISCOVERIES. 605 



& 



to contend with a very warlike race of Esquimaux, who then 

 extended further to the south under the name of the Skra- 

 linger. The first Bishop of Greenland, Eric Upsi, an Ice- 

 lander, undertook, in 1121, a Christian mission to Vinland; 

 and the name of the colonised country has even been dis- 

 covered in old national songs of the inhabitants of the Faroe 

 , Islands.* 



The activity and bold spirit of enterprise manifested by the 

 Greenland and Icelandic adventurers are proved by the cir- 

 cumstance that, after they had established settlements south 

 of 41 30' north latitude, they erected three boundary pillars 

 on the eastern shores of Baffin's Bay, at the latitude of 

 72 55', on one of the Woman's Islands,! north-west of the 

 present most northern Danish colony of Upernavick. The 

 Runic inscriptions, which were discovered in the autumn of 

 the year 1824, contain, according to Rask and Finn Mag- 

 nusen, the date 1135. From this eastern coast of Baffin's 

 Bay, more than six hundred years before the bold expeditions 

 of *Parry and Ross, the colonists very regularly visited Lan- 

 caster Sound and a part of Barrow's Straits for the purpose of 

 fishing. The locality of the fishing ground is very definitely 

 described, and Greenland priests, from the Bishopric of 

 Gardar, conducted the first voyage of discovery (1266). 

 This north-western summer station was called the Kroksfjar- 

 dar Heath. Mention is even made of the drift wood (un- 

 doubtedly from Siberia) collected there, and of the abundance 

 of whales, seals, walrusses, and sea bears.J 



* See Carmen Fceroicum in quo Virilandice mentio Jit. (Ram, 

 Antiquit. Amer., pp. 320-332.) 



f 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 conversion to Christianity, was changed into a Christian, 

 festival. (Rstfn,Antiquit. Amer., pp. 347-355.) On the doubts which 

 Brynjulfsen, Mohnike, and Klaproth, express respecting the Runic num- 

 bers, see my Examen crit., t. ii. pp. 97-101 ; yet, from other indica- 

 tions, Brynjulfsen and Graah are led to regard the important monument 

 on the Woman's Islands (as well as the Runic inscriptions found at 

 Igalikko and Egegeit, lat. 60 51' and 60 0', and the ruins of buildings 

 near Upernavik, lat. 72 50') as belonging undoubtedly to the eleventh 

 and twelfth centuries. 



Rafn, Antiquit. Amer., pp. 20, 274, and 415-418 (Wilhelmi, uber 

 Island, Hvitramannaland, Greenland, und Vinland, s. 117-121). 



