ICELAND, GREENLAND, AND VINELAND 83 



which was found imbedded in the yellow sand and seemed to 

 have been lost before the advent of the Northmen, and presuma- 

 bly belonged to the savages they found here. 



Probably the reader will contrast these different dwellings of 

 the Northmen with those of the native tribes of North America, 

 from the magnificent ruins of Copan to the long, narrow houses 

 of the Iroquois, and will detect the similarities and differences 

 between these and the habitations of the Greenland Eskimos. 



The Spanish, Dutch, French, and English explorers visited 

 and might have built houses on these shores, but in Europe no 

 houses of this type are found outside of Iceland, except in the 

 Faroes, and, although ruins of Norse dwellings are probably 

 awaiting detection in England, Scotland, Orkney, and Shetland, 

 they have not yet been brought to the notice of archeologists.* 



The earliest examples of architecture on our shores, as well as 

 the present knowledge of the evolution of European architecture, 

 as far as I have been able to find out, show that the walls of the 

 inferior houses in post-Columbian times were unlike those of 

 Iceland. Our oldest French house is the Sillery manor house 

 near Quebec, built by the Jesuits in 1637. The walls of this 

 house are built of stone, and are three feet thick, laid in mortar 

 which is now nearly as hard as the stone itself. I have been 

 unable to find anything more primitive of French workmanship 

 here. I have found nothing in English work which is not famil- 

 iar to you all, although I have followed up several mistaken re- 

 ports. The Dutch buildings show an equally advanced though 

 different type of development, and also the Spanish. 



I am glad to have an opportunity to express publicly my sin- 

 cere thanks and deep indebtedness to the American archeologists, 

 both here and in Canada, who have come most kindly to my 

 assistance and taught me in the field the knowledge they had 

 acquired by their own experience, without which I could not 

 have learned how to gather many facts, a few of which I have 

 here presented. 



Mr Gerard Kowke : Seven weeks of field work in and near Cambridge. 

 Two weeks of field work in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Mary- 

 land, 1894, Five weeks in Cambridge, 1896. 



Dr Franz Boas: Two days in and near Cambridge, 1894. 



Mr David Boyle, Curator of the Canadian Institute at Toronto: One week 

 in and near Cambridge. One week in Ontario, Canada, 1894. One week 

 in Cambridge, 1896. 



* Since writing this I have been notified that ancient Norse rains have been found in 

 the Hebrides. 



