NOVA ZEMBLA AND LANDS BEYOND. 83 
discovered probably between A.D. 830 and 835, who, 
having explored the continent, returned in the third year 
to Iveland, where he boasted very much of the fertility of 
the land he had discovered, to which he gave this name, 
hoping, it is alleged, to induce others to follow him thither. 
A writer in the beginning of the present century speaks 
indeed of trees, but he tells: ‘Those shrubs and trees, 
which in milder climates afford a comfortable shade to the 
wanderer, creep in this forlorn land under scattered. rocks, 
to find shelter from their destroying enemies—-storm, snow, 
and ice. This land, however, presents a series of plants 
which probably would not subsist ina milder climate; and 
in the interior of the inlets and firths many species pre- 
viously unknown in other countries. Some of the new 
“species are mentioned in the last number of the Flora 
Danica,* There are also other spots which boast the most 
luxuriant verdure, but they are only places in the neighbour- 
hood of the Greenland heuses, which have been improved 
for many years by the blood and fat of seals and other 
animals. There are also small hills on the uninhabited 
islands, where the birds build their nests, and, manuring 
the decomposing rocks, extort vegetation to their abode 
from the uncertain soil. These places, however, are but of 
rare occurrence, in proportion to the immense extent of the 
country. Innumerable cryptogamic plants, growing with 
great rapidity under snow and ice, supply the want of 
flourishing vegetation on the rocks and cliffs.’ 
According to reports brought by Baron Nordenskjold, 
the land, instead of being everywhere a green land, might 
with as much propriety as the land from which Eric was a 
fugitive, have been designated Iceland. On the 4th Sep= 
tember 1883 he anchored in a fiord which had been newly 
visited by the Esquimaux, and where were found some 
remains of the Norman period. It was the first time since 
the fifteenth century that a vessel had succeeded in anchor- 
* A classified list of plants, &c., found in Greenland is given in Brewster’s Edinburgh 
Encyclopedia, vol. x,, pp. 494-496.—J. C. B, 
