NOVA ZEMBLA AND LANDS BEYOND. 83 



discovered probably between A.D. 880 and 835, who, 

 having explored the continent, returned in the third year 

 to Iceland, where he boasted very much of the fertility of 

 the land he had discovered, to which he gave this name, 

 hoping, it is alleged, to induce others to follow him thither. 

 A writer in the beginning of the present century speaks 

 indeed of trees, but he tells : ' Those shrubs and trees, 

 which in milder climates afford a comfortable shade to the 

 wanderer, creep in this forlorn land under scattered rocks, 

 to find shelter from their destroying enemies storm, snow, 

 and ice. This land, however, presents a series of plants 

 which probably would not subsist in a milder climate ; and 

 in the interior of the inlets and firths many species pre- 

 viously unknown in other countries. Some of the new 

 species are mentioned in the last number of the Flora 

 Danica* There are also other spots which boast the most 

 luxuriant verdure, but they are only places in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Greenland houses, which have been improved 

 for many years by the blood and fat of seals and other 

 animals. There are also small hills on the uninhabited 

 islands, where the birds build their nests, and, manuring 

 the decomposing rocks, extort vegetation to their abode 

 from the uncertain soil. These places, however, are but of 

 rare occurrence, in proportion to the immense extent of the 

 country. Innumerable cryptogamic plants, growing with 

 great rapidity under snow and ice, supply the want of 

 flourishing vegetation on the rocks and cliffs.' 



According to reports brought by Baron Nordenskjold, 

 the land, instead of being everywhere a green land, might 

 with as much propriety as the land from which Eric was a 

 fugitive, have been designated Iceland. On the 4th Sep- 

 tember 1883 he anchored in a fiord which had been newly 

 visited by the Esquimaux, and where were found some 

 remains of the Norman period. It was the first time since 

 the fifteenth century that a vessel had succeeded in anchor- 



* A classified list of plants, &c., found in Greenland is given in Brewster's Edinburgh 

 Encyclopedia, vol. x., pp. 494-496. J. C. B. 



