NO. 12 THE WINELAND VOYAGES — S WANTON 53 



Thorhall next summer Karlsefni pursued the course that the former 

 was supposed to have taken. He and his companions — 



sailed to the northward around Keelness, and then bore to the westward, having 

 land to the larboard. The country there was a wooded wilderness, as far as 

 they could see, with scarcely an open space, and when they had journeyed a 

 considerable distance, a river flowed down from the east toward the west. They 

 sailed into the mouth of the river and lay to by the southern bank. 



Westward-flowing streams are scarce along the northeast coast of 

 America but there are some flowing into Northumberland Strait that 

 might answer to the description, and Thorvald's enthusiasm over the 

 region they entered, in the Flat Island Book, would be justified. At 

 the other end of Nova Scotia the Bay of Fundy with its renowned 

 tides would fit ideally with what is said of Streamfirth, but I doubt 

 whether the tides on the outer coast of Nova Scotia are sufficiently 

 conspicuous to encourage us to choose St. Mary Bay or Mira Bay. 

 If the Bay of Fundy was Streamfirth, we could find a bird island in 

 one of the Tusket Islands but hardly in Grand Manan as Babcock 

 (1913, pp. 1 18-120) suggested. 



A weak point in the theory is the supposition that our voyagers 

 passed all the way round the irregular east and south coasts of New- 

 foundland without comment. The most serious objection, however, 

 arises when one attempts to identify the Wonder-strands with the 

 modern topography. A long, relatively straight, and to some extent 

 sandy, coast is indicated. This excludes the coast of Newfoundland 

 and compels us to seek for it on the east coasts of Cape Breton Island 

 and Nova Scotia. This is a stumbling block even if we agree with 

 Dieserud, as does the writer, that Wonder-strands does not neces- 

 sarily mean Wonder-sands and we need not look for long sandy 

 beaches like those of New Jersey or even southern Maine and New 

 Hampshire. Dieserud (1901, p. 12) is able to cite the existence of 

 one sandy beach of at least a mile in length in Ingonish Bay and 

 places Wonder-strands between Cape North and St. Ann's Bay on 

 the northern projection of Cape Breton Island, but that is some 

 distance from the long, straight coast we are led to search for which 

 would begin at Cape Breton, and it seems hardly extensive enough 

 to answer to the language used. Babcock (1913, pp. 112-117) sought a 

 different solution by supposing that the configuration of the east coast 

 of Nova Scotia had been radically altered since A. D. 1000 by the 

 rising of the land. He was in error in supposing that the land is 

 rising. It is actually sinking (Dr. Lewis, personal communication). 

 But this need not destroy the force of the theory if it can be shown 



