viii THE VINLAND VOYAGES 



from that fragmentary account of Pytheas' voyages 

 that has been saved to us, where, as Nansen has main- 

 tained, it seems probable that when he arrived at the 

 north tip of Scotland, somewhere around 325 B.C., 

 the people there told Pytheas>that if he were to con- 

 tinue a certain number of days in the same direction 

 (north or northeast) he would come to another coun- 

 try which they were able to describe to him. This 

 would mean that in the days when Alexander was 

 conquering Asia the Scots were sailing the high seasj 

 for, under normal conditions of wind and weather, 

 it would happen again and again on voyages between 

 Scotland and Norway that ships would be out of sight 

 of land for several days. 



Or was it the Norwegians who were already sailing 

 to Scotland a thousand years before the nominal be- 

 ginning of the Viking Age? More likely it was both, 

 for when you have across a navigable water two peo- 

 ples of the known traits of the Scots and the Nor- 

 wegians you would have to assume that one would 

 quickly learn from the other. 



This makes (if possible) more absurd the inherently 

 absurd assumption that in the early Viking Age the 

 Irish had no boats except coracles. For if the Scots 

 sailed to Norway, or if the Norwegians sailed to Scot- 

 land, either or both would sail to Ireland, and the 

 knowledge of shipping would spread. The Irish would 



