HELLULAND THE MODERN- LABRADOR. 29 



eastern Newfoundland was by some regarded as Hellu- 

 latid. It would be easy for a vessel in those days to 

 pass by without seeing the opetiing into the Strait of 

 Belle Isle, and, owing to the somewhat similar scenic 

 features of the two lands, to confound the northeastern 

 extremity of Newfoundland with Labrador. 



That, as some have claimed, the Norsemen ever 

 isailed through the Strait of Belle Isle, coasted along- 

 Southern Labrador and wintered at the mouth of the 

 river St. Lawrence, is certainly not supported by the 

 early Norse records as interpreted by Kohl. 



Their vessels sailed to the seaward of Newfoundland. 

 That they did not feel drawn to sojourn in Helluland 

 is no wonder. Its coast presented no more attractions 

 than Greenland, while the grapes, food, and furs, with 

 the verdure and mild winter climate of " Vinland the 

 Good," led to one expedition after another, as late per- 

 haps as 1347, when, according to the Icelandic annals, 

 " a vessel, having a crew of seventeen men, sailed from 

 Iceland to Markland." 



Then came the decadence of Norse energy and sea- 

 manship, succeeded by the failure of the Greenland col- 

 onies, which were overpowered and extinguished by the 

 Eskimo. A dense curtain of oblivion thicker and more 

 impenetrable than the fogs which still wrap the regions 

 of the north, fell upon these hyperborean lands, until, in 

 1497, the veil was again withdrawn by an English 

 hand.* 



-Since the foregoing remarks were sent to the printer. 



*The voyage of Szkblney, the Pole, to the coasts of Greenland and Labrador, 

 is stated to have been performed in 1476. See Humboldt, Examen Critique,. 

 Ji, p. 152. (N. A. Review, July, 1838, 179.) 



