THE MEDITERRANEAN LOOKS WEST 89 



shores of a western land and called it Helluland. This he 

 reported in Greenland in 986. 



Leif Ericson set out in 1000 to explore further this new 

 western continent, probably coasting as far south as Cape Cod 

 and wintering there before his return to Greenland the next 

 year. Leif's youngest brother, Thorvald, returned to Vinland 

 in 1002 and spent two winters there. Thorvald was killed by 

 the Indians and his company returned to Brattahild in Green- 

 land in 1004. Between the years 1007 and 1010 a further 

 attempt to effect a permanent settlement on the American 

 coast was made by Thorfinn Karlsefni, but it came to no per- 

 manence because of dissensions among different members of 

 the expedition. There was nothing miraculous in these voy- 

 ages. The long, well-modeled vessels of the Norse were prob- 

 ably as good sea boats in their way as those used by Columbus 

 five hundred years later, and there was no insuperable stretch 

 of open sea to deter experienced men. The longest hitch of a 

 voyage from Norway to Vinland would, in fact, be the accus- 

 tomed leg from Norway to Iceland. 



The question naturally arises why this bold beginning was 

 not followed through. In part it was the same kind of trouble 

 that halted the first great Atlantic venture of the Phoenicians. 

 There were bad times at home. Civil wars broke out in Nor- 

 way, and hard times slowly came on the Greenland colony. 

 Leif Ericson died, and with him the immediate inspiration for 

 further discovery. But beyond the more or less temporary 

 political and economic disruption, as the eleventh century 

 grew older a noticeable change in weather conditions affected 

 the northlands. The long period of warm weather over the far 

 north came to an end. In a later chapter we shall discuss the 

 effect on the European civilizations of fluctuating climate. 

 Here it may be enough to record that the icecap worked down 

 from central Greenland and brought with it new floe ice in 



