58 



The National Geographic Magazine 



medal, but by the eloquent words pro- 

 nounced by the Vice-President of the 

 United States and by the President of 

 this Society. 



Captain Amundsen followed the ex- 

 ample of his ancestors. His ancestors 

 may be proud of him, -and he in turn may 

 truly, when he goes back in thought to- 

 wards the origins of his nation, be proud 

 of his ancestors — those ancestors who 

 started from the distant north and went 

 to nearly all parts of the world. 



And as in those days all the parts of 

 the world were equally unknown, as 

 there was no National Geographic So- 

 ciety — we have just heard that it has ex- 

 isted only twenty years and I speak of 

 twelve centuries ago — in those days when 

 the whole world was unknown, a Norse- 

 man when he started would throw a 

 feather in the air, and in the direction 

 which the wind impressed on that feather, 

 there he would go and discover. 



Starting thus, the Norsemen went in 

 •every direction, as the wind and their 

 pluck told them. They went to Russia; 

 they founded the Kingdom of Novgorod ; 

 they were settled along the tributaries of 

 the Black Sea. They took service under 

 the Byzantine emperors, and some of 

 them stationed in Greece inscribed their 

 names on antique marble lions, as a 

 sentry would nowadays (though forbid- 

 den) inscribe his name on his box. Those 

 lions still exist, and many of you may 

 have seen them in Venice, where they 

 were transferred by Morosini in the sev- 

 enteenth century, and where, sentries 

 in their turn, they keep watch in front 

 of the Arsenal main gate. They still 

 "bear on their marble skins the names in 

 runic characters of the Scandinavian de- 

 fenders of Byzantium. 



The same sea rovers, following, as 

 they said, the "swans' path," the "whales' 

 road," went north and went west, settling 

 in France, in England, in Iceland, and 

 Greenland, and visiting America. 



I do not think there is any doubt that 

 the first European settlers were men from 

 •the north, sailing in those long wooden 

 "boats, of which several are preserved in 

 JNorway, having been found in tumuli. 



For some time it was doubted that such a 

 feat was a possible one; but the experi- 

 ment has been tried in our days and has 

 proven successful. At the time of the 

 Chicago Exposition Norsemen again 

 crossed the Atlantic in the same sort of 

 boat as their forefathers. An accurate 

 copy of one of the viking ships dug from 

 the Norway mounds, manned by the 

 same number of men, with the same 

 number of oars, having the same single 

 mast, and no deck, started from Bergen, 

 crossed the Atlantic, where it met some 

 very rough weather, was for some time 

 considered as lost, but it was not lost at 

 all and it arrived in New York quite 

 safely, the men having never had a 

 moment's anxiety. That ship still ex- 

 ists. It is to be seen in Chicago, and in 

 that big city, where there are so many 

 interesting objects to be seen, none is 

 more interesting than this Norsemen's 

 boat. 



It is a great honor for me to have been 

 invited to address you and invited in the 

 words your President used. He recalled 

 in touching words my compatriots' con- 

 tribution to a better knowledge of this 

 country. To this there is no doubt they 

 contributed, and the memory of such men 

 as Laudoniere, Joliet, La Salle, Mar- 

 quette, Bienville, and several others 

 certainlv deserves to be cherished, as 

 it is by the National Geographic Society. 

 Some of the earliest maps of the North- 

 ern portion of this continent are French 

 maps, drawn by hand, and they are pre- 

 served at our Ministry of Foreign Af- 

 fairs, in Paris. There was, however, a 

 period in French history when the 

 French had a kind of fame that now, I 

 dare say, they have no more. At the 

 time of my youth Frenchmen were fa- 

 mous for their ignorance of geography. 

 This fame we have lost, but I hope we 

 have some other kinds of fame to console 

 us for the loss of that one. For we too 

 have since then emulated, not without 

 some share of success, the deeds of our 

 ancestors. We have begun again to dis- 

 cover countries. The North has not been 

 our special department ; it has rather been 

 that of Norsemen, of Americans and 



