CONCLUSION 67 



colonies that are larger in extent and population than 

 would in all likelihood have been possible in Thor- 

 finn's time. 



Nevertheless, Thorfinn's brave attempt lives in the 

 memory of many of those who dwell in Vinland to- 

 day. In recent times several noted men and women of 

 the New World have made serious researches as to his 

 voyage, written on the subject, and studied all the 

 Icelandic source material carefully. In 1920 a digni- 

 fied bronze monument was erected to his memory in 

 Philadelphia, through the generosity of J. Bunford 

 Samuel (see the frontispiece). The sculptor was the 

 renowned Icelandic artist Einar Jonsson. No one, 

 however, has ever advanced the theory that Thorfinn 

 reached Philadelphia. The voyage of Leif Ericsson 

 had already been commemorated in a similar manner 

 many years before, by the erection in 1886 in the 



Additional footnote to p. 38. — Fernald identifies the grapevine 

 ('vinber) and self-sown wheat of the Sagas as the mountain cranberry 

 {Vaccinium Vitis-Idcea) and strand wheat {Elymus arenarius) re- 

 spectively. The area of their greatest abundance, he states, lies north 

 of the lower St. Lawrence along the coast of Labrador. His conclusion 

 is: "If, however, the newer interpretation is admitted, that mountain 

 cranberries, birch trees, and strand wheat were what the Norsemen 

 really saw in Markland and Vinland, it will be noted that in New- 

 foundland and Labrador every one of the natural features is satisfied" 

 {Bull. Amer. Geogr. Soc, Vol. 47, 191 5, p. 687). But his view of 

 the matter has not been generally accepted, except in so far as the absence 

 of wild grapes in Nova Scotia is concerned. Hence the attempts at seek- 

 ing Vinland farther south. — H. H. 



