NO. 12 THE WINELAND VOYAGES — SWANTON 55 



The total distance from the eastern entrance of the Strait of Belle 

 Isle to Cape Whittle is about 225 miles, and from Cape Whittle to 

 Seven Islands 280 miles, 98 of this latter consisting of sand beaches. 

 Undoubtedly this fits the description of the Sagas better than any- 

 other location that has been suggested and that has any probability 

 in its favor. 



We have considerable difficulty, however, in determining the loca- 

 tion of Keelness, because the narratives leave us in some doubt 

 whether it was at the near or far end of the Wonder-strands as the 

 voyagers approached it or whether it lay in an intermediate position. 

 Those who place Wonder-strands on the south coast of Labrador 

 have uniformly located it at the western end because they have 

 thought it necessary to identify the western wooded land visited by 

 Karlsefni with the estuary of the St. Lawrence, though there has been 

 no agreement among them as to the identity of the cape. Steensby, 

 somewhat doubtfully, suggested Point Vaches at the mouth of the 

 Saguenay River, but this is by no means conspicuous, nor is it easy to 

 see how an explorer from the south could pass around it and turn 

 west. Here Steensby has felt compelled to resort to an elaborate re- 

 construction of the narrative which is labored and has been accepted 

 by no one else. Hermannsson proposed the East Cape of Anticosti 

 Island, his theory being that the voyagers sighted it as they passed 

 westward along the Labrador coast, cut across to it under the impres- 

 sion that it was the south headland of a bay, and from there entered 

 Chaleur Bay which he identifies as Streamfirth. On leaving in search 

 of Thorhall he thinks Karlsefni rounded the same cape as being a 

 known landmark and then turned west into the St. Lawrence estuary 

 unaware of the shorter route between Anticosti and Gaspe. Thordar- 

 son, however, esteems it incredible that Karlsefni's company who had, 

 according to the narrative, spent all their first summer exploring the 

 country, should have been unaware of this wide passage. He accord- 

 ingly identifies Keelness with Cape Gaspe but otherwise agrees with 

 Hermannsson as to the location of the region of the Unipeds visited 

 by Karlsefni (Hermannsson, 1936, p. 68; Thordarson, 1930, pp. 25, 

 36). Thordarson's emendation seems logical, and it has the same 

 strength as the Nova Scotia theory in being able to point to a western 

 inlet for exploration by parties in search of Wineland — in this case 

 the St. Lawrence estuary rather than the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 Indeed, Steensby (1918, pp. 64-76) locates Hop higher up this very 

 estuary but thereby is left without any proper explanation of the 

 region covered by Karlsefni in his search for Thorhall, since this 



