70 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, IO7 



I know of no other references to grapes growing wild along the 

 rivers flowing into Northumberland Strait, but if they were so 

 "plentiful" on St. John River, one wonders if they might not at an 

 earlier period have spread farther east in greater quantities than 

 Denys indicates. Any idea that the climate may have altered ma- 

 terially is frowned upon by geologists and paleobotanists, but I do 

 not understand that this inhibits the possibility of cyclar swings 

 during which grapes might have spread farther east. Nor is it im- 

 possible that Indians in going to and fro along the trails from the 

 St. John to the Gulf may have unintentionally spread grapes from 

 one section to the other. There were several trails crossing the 

 country in this way, one by Richibucto and Salmon Rivers to Grand 

 Lake, and wild grapes have been found about the last mentioned in 

 recent times. (Denys, p. 194.) 



But without making such assumptions we may cite some evidence 

 to the effect that the grapes in Wineland were not as plentiful as the 

 narratives would indicate and that the explorers may have had to 

 travel some distance inland to get them. If Leif came upon Wineland 

 after crossing the entire North Atlantic as stated in the Saga, there 

 is no certainty that his landfall was identical with that of Karlsefni, 

 though it must have been well to the south. All that we learn from it 

 is that specimens of grape vines were carried to Greenland by Leif. 

 Nothing is said as to their abundance. This is indeed implied in one 

 place in the narrative of Karlsefni in the words "wherever there was 

 hilly ground, there were vines," but this party is not said to have 

 carried grapes back to Greenland. Moreover, the two stories that 

 have come down to us which profess to describe how grapes were 

 discovered imply that they were at some distance from the place 

 where the Norse had settled. The one included in the Saga attributes 

 the find to two Scottish slaves who had been presented to Leif by King 

 Olaf and loaned Karlsefni for this expedition. They were directed to 

 run south and return by the end of the third half day which they 

 did, bringing specimens of self-sown wheat and grapes. To be sure 

 this episode is placed at Streamfirth, but it has long been recognized 

 that it is an interpolation and it is generally held that it applies to 

 the time when they reached Wineland proper. According to the 

 story in the Flat Island Book, grapes were discovered by a German 

 named Tyrker who had advanced farther into the country than his 

 companions. The Flat Island Book is also mainly responsible for the 

 supposed abundance of grapes. Excepting in the note above quoted 

 there is no evidence for that in the Saga, and the specimen of grapes 



