24 



lost sight of the ivhole land, both the southern stretch of coast 

 and the glaciers; but south of them there were also glaciers as 

 far as they could see. There tJieij found some indications that 

 the Skrœlmgs had formerly stayed in these places; but on 

 account of the bears, they could not go ashore. Then they sailed 

 back in three days, and there [i. e. in the place ivhere they came] 

 they found some remains after the Skrælings, when they came 

 to some islands south of Sncefjall. After tJiat they sailed south 

 to Krôksfjarôarheidi, a good day's rowing, Jakobsmassday ; it 

 froze there then at nights, but the sun shone both night and day, 

 and- it ivas no higher when it was in the south than that, when 

 a man laid himself crossivise in a six-oared boat, stretched out 

 against the railing, then the shadow of the railing which was 

 nearest to the sun fell on his face; but at midnight it was as 

 high as it is at home in the colony, when it is in the north- 

 west. TJien they traveled home to Gardar". 



That summer when the Norse explorers came home from 

 regions farther north than had previously been known can be 

 exactly dated, because we are told that it happened about the 

 same time as the shipwreck at Hitarnes, and this is known to 

 have occurred in the year 1266*). The Skrælings themselves 

 had not been seen ; but the manner in which they are spoken 

 about throughout the whole letter indicates that the Norsemen 

 had the impression that they were in the vicinity of them. 

 Perhaps the expedition mentioned in the letter, which was sent 

 out to the northernmost regions by Greenlandic priests, was 

 partly occasioned by fear of the Skrælings, or by a desire to 

 become more closely acquainted with their places of habitation. 



Where are Krôksfjardarheidi and Snœfjall? — The Orst 

 of these, if it is not named after a man, must suggest a fjord 

 with a remarkable bend {krokr), surrounded by desolate highlands 



The Icelander Björn Jonssons Annals of Greenland, in Gronl. hist. 

 Mindesmærker, Vol. I, p. 83 iL, III, p. 6 IT. 



