biarne's return voyage. 25 



■ If Biarne's return passage occupied only nine (Jays, 

 tie could not possibly have sailed from Cape Cod tQ 

 Greenland in that time. A nine days' trip from Boston 

 to the Labrador coast at the mouth of the Strait of Belle 

 Isle is a remarkably short one for an ordinary fishipg- 

 ^chooner. 



The distance from Boston to the Gieenland coast 4 

 little north of Cape Farewell, where the southernmost 

 Norse settlements were made, is about 2,300 miles, 

 The southern coast of Labrador is about half-way. The 

 'exact sailing distance from Thomaston, Maine, to 

 Caribou Island, Strait of Belle Isle, Labrador, is 910 

 sniles. , 



The "Nautilus," the vessel in which I first sailed to 

 Labrador, was a staunch schooner of 140 tons. She 

 mailed from Thomaston, Maine, June 27, and passing 

 laround Cape Breton, reached Caribou Island in ten 

 "days* (July 7th) : after leaving our party on the Labra- 

 dor coast, she set sail for Greenland July 9th, over nearly 

 the same route as the Norsemen must have taken. 

 From Captain Ranlett of the " Nautilus," I learn that 

 he first sighted land on the coast of Greenland on the 

 '17th, in lat. 62° 58', and long. 52° 05'. The land next 

 seen was about lat. 63° 10', long. 50° 45'. This is about 

 fifty miles south of Fiskernaes, and 25 miles north of 

 Frederickshaab. The voyage to Greenland was thus 

 made in about nine days, as the vessel did not reach 

 land before the i8th. The return voyage from God- 

 thaab to Bonne Esperance, Labrador (three miles west 

 from Caribou Island), was made in twelve days. The 



* Rev. C. C. Carpenter writes me that he sailed in a fishing-smack from Cari- 

 lioii Island Oct. 3d, and made the shores of Maine on the 13th, 



