62 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IO7 



land) but are merely told that in order to reach it "they sailed for a 

 long time." How long that might be was left to the imagination of the 

 reader, and imaginations have been busy with it ever since. But we 

 have seen that when (or if) they sailed from the entrance of the 

 Strait of Belle Isle to Cape Whittle, a distance of about 225 miles, 

 it took them, according to one narrative "a. long time," and according 

 to another 2 doegr. The Wonder-strands, a somewhat longer stretch 

 of coast according to our theory, were "long to sail by." 



If Streamfirth was the Bay of Fundy or anywhere in that neighbor- 

 hood, we would naturally look for Wineland in New England, and 

 a time period of 2 doegr, the period of passage mentioned in the Flat 

 Island Book, might very well bring us there but the accuracy of the 

 scource is not to be counted on and according to various authorities 

 a doegr might mean anything from 50 miles to 150 or 200. If Stream- 

 firth was in the St. Lawrence estuary or Chaleur Bay the distance 

 covered would be nearer 900 miles, and our 2 doegr would not carry us 

 farther than Northumberland Strait. 



The early, widely accepted theory as to the location of Wineland, 

 fathered by Rafn, placed it in Mount Hope Bay, R. I., on the very 

 slender possibility that the word "Hop," applied by Karlsefni to the 

 lake or lakelike expansion of the river where they set up their cabins, 

 had somehow survived into modern times. Babcock (1913, p. 137) ac- 

 cepted this theory, but, as in the case of the Wonder-strands, had to 

 suppose considerable geological change during the last 900 years in 

 order to establish a resemblance between the Mount Hope Bay of 

 today and the Hop described in the Sagas. Instead of a single en- 

 trance with offshore bars, there are two deep-water entrances into 

 this bay, and instead of one river flowing into it, there are four. The 

 U. S. Coast Pilot for this section (U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 

 U. S. Coast Pilot, 1927, pp. 91, 105) says: 



There are two approaches by water to this bay, one through Sakonnet River 

 and the other through the Eastern Passage of Narragansett Bay. The former 

 is Httle used [but "is good for a depth of 20 feet (6.1 m.) to Mount Hope Bay, 

 a distance of 12 miles"]; the latter [approach]. . . . has a depth of over 6 

 fathoms (11 m.) in the channel until in the bay. 



Of the four rivers entering the bay, the principal is Taunton River. 



Before continuing this discussion, however, it will be well to quote 

 those passages from the narratives upon which we must depend for 

 any attempted identifications. First, from the Saga of Eric the Red : 



It is now told of Karlsefni, that he cruised southward off the coast [from 

 Streamfirth], with Snorri and Biarni, and their people. They sailed for a long 



