68 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IO7 



Buctouche River, N. B., 7 feet over the bar; inside channel wide with depth 

 of 2-3 fathoms. 



Miramichi Bay, N. B., I or 2 feet over the bar in most places but 22 feet in 

 the ship channel which has been dredged. 



Pictou Harbor would seem to be excluded from consideration on 

 account of the depth of water at its entrance, but a case might be 

 made out for any one of the others. 



The argument as between New England and the Nova Scotia-New 

 Brunswick coast must turn largely upon descriptions of the climate 

 and the presence of grapes. In 1910 the botanist Fernald put forth 

 a theory that the term in the Sagas translated grapes really referred 

 to cranberries {Vaccinium vitis-idcea) or to a species of currant, 

 and that the Norse did not get south of Labrador. His contention, 

 however, was rather successfully countered 3 years later by A. L. 

 Andrews and has not been accepted by most of the commentators 

 on the Norse voyages (Fernald, 1910, pp. 17-38; Andrews, 1913, 

 pp. 28-36) . Whether there was anyone in Karlsefni's party who had 

 ever seen grapes or not, I am satisfied that neither cranberries nor 

 currants were mistaken for them. 



Wild grapes are known to have been fairly plentiful in New 

 England, and one species {Vitis vulpina) extended into the valley 

 of St. John River, New Brunswick. Another {Vitis novae-angliae) , 

 the Pilgrim grape, reached as far north as the valley of Penobscot 

 River, Me. Champlain (vol. i, pp. 323-324) first encountered grapes 

 on Richmond Island, Me., on July 9, 1606, and records the fact as 

 follows : 



Meantime the Sieur de Monts paid a visit to an island which is very beautiful 

 on account of what it produces, having fine oaks and nut-trees, with cleared 

 land and abundance of vines which in their season bear fine grapes. These 

 were the first we had seen on any of these coasts from Cape Le Have [the 

 point in Nova Scotia where they first landed and still bearing the name]. We 

 named it the Island of Bacchus. 



The same name was given by Cartier (Biggar, 1924, p. 126) to the 

 Isle of Orleans below Quebec, the point farthest down the St. 

 Lawrence where grapes grew, and one of the reasons why Steensby 

 placed Wineland in that region. 



On September 21, 1606, Champlain visited Richmond Island again 

 and found the grapes ripe (vol. i, p. 395) : 



At the Island of Bacchus, we saw grapes which were ripe and fairly good, and 

 others which were not ; they had a fruit as fine as those of France, and I am 

 convinced that if they were cultivated one could make good wine from them. 



