25 



(heiéi); the second suggests a conspicuous mountain with eternal 

 snow, north of this Ijord. The distance between them is design- 

 ated as a day's rowing. There is every reason to beh'eve that 

 this Nordrseta (= northern settlement), where the Norsemen of 

 South Greenland had erected summer dwellings, and which they 

 visited every summer for the sake of the good sealing, was 

 situated on the Greenland side, and not on the west side 

 of Davis Strait, where there is always dangerous and difficult 

 saihng*). The northernmost known monument of Norse origin 

 is a stone with a runic inscription, which was found on the 

 little island Kingittor suaq (72° 55' N. lat., about 16 miles 

 northwest of Upernavik), and was in 1824 deposited in the 

 National Aluseum in Copenhagen**). The inscription simply 

 gives the names of the 3 men who "raised this cairn and cut 

 the inscription, Saturday after Gagnday iApril 25)". The year 

 is uncertain. This stone was no doubt raised in memory of 

 an unusual expedition, as a testimony to how far north the 

 three men had penetrated. Kröksfjord must have been farther 

 south***). I make a guess that Umanak Fjord (71° N.) is the 

 one in question. The special krokr might perhaps be looked 

 for in Uwkusissät Fjord, either east of Svartenhuk Peninsula, 

 or at the inner end of the fjord. Is Snœfjall Cape Svartenhuk 

 or a mountain farther north (Qaersorsuaq close to Upernavik?)? 

 Hafshotninn "Bay of the sea" naturally makes us think of Mel- 

 ville Bay. It is possible that the other places are to be located 

 farther north. But it seems certain that the Skrælings had not 

 yet settled south of Krcjksfjord in the year 1266. 



In the light of this fully credible account of the expedition 



*) Prof. Finnur Jonsson, \sith whom I had a conversation with reference 



to this subject, expressed himself as decidedly in favour of this opinion. 



'*) Gr. hist. Mindesmærker III, p. 843, Plate IX, fig. 3. — Leiewell: Geographie 



du moyen âge, Vol. IV, 18.52, p. 77. 

 ***) I venture this assertion in spite of the fact that the astronomical cal- 

 culation which is based upon the old account of the sun's position 

 points to a higher latitude (Gr. hist. Mindesmærker Vol.111, p. 88.')). 



