NO. 12 THE WINELAND VOYAGES — SWANTON 6l 



river, and of this the Sagas contain no trace. Moreover, Steensby does 

 not seem to have noticed that such a location would be in violent con- 

 tradiction with what is said about Leif's discovery of Wineland in 

 the Saga of Eric the Red which Steensby accepts as authoritative. 

 For it tells us that he came upon that region after having been tossed 

 about for a long time on the North Atlantic when he was on his 

 way from Norway to Greenland, and it is evident that he would 

 not have been driven through Cabot Strait and deep into the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, or of his own volition would have voyaged thither. 

 This objection would, indeed, be removed if we accept the story of 

 Leif's discovery of Wineland substantially as it is given in the Flat 

 Island Book, but there are other serious difficulties, one being the 

 failure of the Norse to discover the St, Lawrence as noted above and 

 another the short distance between Steensby's sites at Hare Island 

 and the mouth of the Riviere du Sud, where he places Hop. This is 

 less than 90 miles, far from sufficient to require a voyage that could 

 be described as occupying "a long time." Taking advantage of the 

 tide, as they certainly would have, a few hours would have been 

 sufficient. 



Attempts to locate Streamfirth other than those considered have 

 little to recommend them. They are usually too far from the probable 

 cruising radius of the Norse explorers or present only isolated and 

 superficial resemblances to the regions described by our authorities. 



This introduces us to a general consideration of the southernmost 

 stopping place of the Norse explorers, Wineland itself. It has been 

 confounded frequently with the region of Streamfirth very largely 

 because it was so confounded by the compilers of the Flat Island 

 Book, but the distinction is clearly indicated in the Saga of Eric the 

 Red. Thus we are told that Thorhall went from Streamfirth "in 

 search of Wineland" while Karlsefni voyaged south for the same 

 purpose. It is true that after Karlsefni's return to Streamfirth we 

 read that they came upon five Skrellings, among whom were two 

 boys whom they made captive and from whom they obtained informa- 

 tion regarding their people, and that this episode begins with the words 

 "when they sailed away from Wineland," but it has not been observed 

 that the whole section is an interpolation and probably an attempt to 

 elaborate the episode of the five Skrellings whom they met and 

 murdered when they were on their way from Wineland to Streamfirth. 



Adequate reasons have already been given, I believe, for rejecting 

 Steensby's theory of the location of Wineland. 



We are not given the distance from Streamfirth to Hop (Wine- 



