NO. 12 THE WINELAND VOYAGES — SWANTON 49 



and Hermannsson therefore believe that it was some island or islands 

 (one manuscript using the plural) off the Greenland coast near 

 Godthaab (Brunn, 1918, p. 58; Power, 1892, pp. 175-176; Thor- 

 darson, 1930, p. 15; Smith, 1839, map; Steensby, 1918, p. 34; Her- 

 mannsson, 1936, pp. 65-67; Babcock, 1913, pp. 54, 98). With this 

 view I am inclined to agree, but the matter will probably never be 

 settled. In any event it is of minor consequence. 



Helluland is the first territory reached by Karlsefni known to have 

 been west of Baffin Bay. The fact that this would be the most 

 probable landfall for any vessel sailing southwest from Greenland, 

 combined with the descriptions of the country as stony, without grass 

 even, and with high "ice mountains" (Flat Island Book) upon it have 

 led by far the greater number of investigators to identify it with 

 Labrador or with some part of Labrador. The principal exceptions are 

 the less conservative students who wish to extend Karlsefni's voyage 

 as far to the south as possible and seek to make the descriptions 

 square with Newfoundland. We should probably interpret "ice 

 mountains" as "snowy mountains." 



It is plain both from the documents and the name itself that Mark- 

 land ("Forest-land") lay to the south of Helluland. Since forests 

 begin in southern Labrador and extend southward indefinitely, 

 theorizers have had a wide area of choice. Those who believe that 

 the voyagers kept outside of Newfoundland have quite generally 

 identified Markland with that island, but they have sometimes in- 

 cluded southern Labrador on the supposition that the Strait of Belle 

 Isle was unperceived and ignored. A few of the less conservative 

 speculators, particularly those who place Helluland in Newfoundland, 

 believe that Markland was Nova Scotia. Curran, who carries his ex- 

 plorers boldly through Hudson Strait into Hudson Bay, finds Mark- 

 land in the James Bay region. Steensby and his followers, believing 

 that Karlsefni entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence through the Strait of 

 Belle Isle, confine Markland to southern Labrador (Steensby, 1918, 

 pp. 42-47; Hermannsson, 1936, p. 59; Thordarson, 1930, p. 21). 

 Others have doubted, or discounted, this on the ground that the 

 Labrador forest growth is small and is almost absent from the off- 

 shore islands and the headlands. The official map of Canadian forests 

 (Atlas of Canada, pp. 17-18) shows, however, "densely wooded 

 northern forest" between Hamilton Inlet and Sandwich Bay. H. G. 

 Watkins (1930, p. 98) reports that — 



southern Labrador is so thickly wooded that it is impossible to do any plane- 

 table work. Even the high hills are usually covered with trees, and for the most 

 part it is an undulating country with no outstanding peaks. 



