810 REPORT— 1884. 



'Vegetation abounded, being exceedingly luxuriant as compared with Cape 

 Hawks, Cape Sabine, or otber points farther south visited by me. Dead willow 

 was found in such abundance as to serve for fuel, and in more than one instance 

 willow, saxifrages, grasses, and other plants grew in such profusion as to completely 

 cover large tracts of ground. These valleys afford excellent pasturage for musk 

 cattle, which, feeding towards the seacoast during summer, withdraw to the interior 

 as winter advances. I frequently noted evidences of the recent elevation above 

 the sea of the region now free from ice-cap ; such indications consisted of raised 

 beaches, marine shells, and driftwood. At one place the trunks of two large coni- 

 ferous trees were found in such state of preservation as to allow of their use as fuel. 

 It seems probable that the two ice-caps were originally united. It is certain that 

 both the northern and southern ice-caps have recently retreated, even if such pro- 

 cess is not going on now. Along the front of the southern ice were found many 

 small glacial lakes and moraines. To the north, lake Hazen, for some fifty miles, 

 borders the ice-cap. In front of Henrietta Nasmith glacier there were three parallel 

 moraines between the face of the glacier and the main lake. 



'At the junction of Lake Hazen and Ruggles River, I discovered the remains of 

 permanent Esquimo huts — many relics were obtained at that place, and at various 

 points along the southern shore of Lake Hazen ; but no traces of any kind were 

 found on the northern shore of the lake. It is perhaps worthy of remark that the 

 reindeer, which must have been plentiful in that country, have entirely disappeared, 

 having either migrated or become extinct. In connection with the line of per- 

 petual snow, I may state that on Mount Arthur it was not far from 3,500 feet 

 above the sea. From barometrical measurements, it appeared that the crest of 

 Grinnell Land was of about 2,500 feet elevation in front of the southern ice-cap, and 

 -i,000 feet near Mount Arthur. 



'Your indulgence is asked for any imperfections in these notes. Strength has 

 failed for their elaboration, and nay memory has necessarily served me in their 

 preparation, as all records and journals are on file in Washington.' 



3. A Search in British North America for lost Colonies of Northmen 

 and Portuguese. 1 By R. G. Haliburton. 



The paper dealt first with Vinland the Good (a.d. 994), which Danish and 

 American writers have placed as far south as Rhode Island. They have treated 

 the Norse poems or Sagas which refer to this subject as truthful narratives. Only 

 one of them can claim any weight, and that is the Saga of Eric the Red, written in 

 Greenland. The significant fact has escaped attention that Eric was a murderer, 

 who fled to Iceland, whence he was soon after banished and outlawed for another 

 murder. He therefore sailed west to a land the existence of which was known to 

 the Northmen ; and though covered with snow it was called by him Greenland, 

 because, said he, ' people will be attracted to the country if it has a good name.' 

 Some time after he was induced by rumours of a still more western country to sail 

 to it ; but the fact of his horse stumbling and throwing him when on his way to 

 the ship was a bad omen. He therefore let his son Leif go without him ; but he 

 probably had a name all ready, one even more taking with emigrants than Green- 

 land, and that was Vinland the Good. 



Late Danish authorities fix the latitude of Vinland by the length of the shortest 

 day there, and make it that of Greeidand or Newfoundland. The Eskimo were 

 then, as now, the inhabitants of Labrador, and were apparently the only natives 

 known to the Northmen. The geographical notices appended to Rafn's great 

 work all agree together in pointing to a country situated like Newfoundland. 

 Grapes, too, are found on the west coast of that island. Canadian yacht-owners 

 should cruise along it, and try to discover traces of Vinland, which, if found, must 

 be a very different country from what Eric or his bard has pictured it. 



Eric and his family have been connected with two puzzling problems, for it was 

 his sons and daughters and his sons-in-law and daughters-in-law that found or 



1 Published in extenso in Proc. R.G.S. vol. vii. No. 1. 



