Here again we have Hvitserk as a landmark. The meaning of the 

 passage is that if you start from Norway you must go south of Ice- 

 land right west till Mount Hvitserk is sighted. Then put that moun- 

 tain to the north of you, then head for northwest to the high mountain 

 Hvarf on Semersok which is one day's journey from Hvitserk. Bet- 

 ween these two towering landmarks (Hvitserk and Hvarf) lies Herjolfs- 

 nses and Sand. Sailing from Iceland you must head for the west one 

 day and night, then turn to southwest to avoid the ice lying about 

 Gunbjornskar till you sight Hvitserk, then it is one day's journey to 

 Hvarf in the Northwest a. s. v. 



The problem is: how the same mountain, Hvitserk, could serve 

 as landmark to both routes, the old and the new. Bardsson's state- 

 ment, that Herjolfnses lies between the two mountains Hvitserk and 

 Hvarf, has made Finnur Jonsson assume Hvitserk to be identic 

 with Gape Farewell. This conjecture can scarcely be considered cor- 

 rect if you take the elevation into account. Cape Farewell is certainly 

 a good-sized rock (some 900 feet high) and would be a good landmark 

 in itself if seen against a less elevated background, or if you sail close 

 to it. But the topographic curves on the map show that Cape 

 Farewell is quite insignificant if compared to the towering moun- 

 tainpeaks on Christian the IVth's island and the continent of Green- 

 land. The distance of these peaks from Cape Farewell is 30 miles but 

 on account of their height, 5 — 6,000 feet, they must be visible at a 

 distance of 150 kilometer when Cape Farewell still is below the hori- 

 zon. We must also conclude that the directions for the new 

 sailing route which was taken up to avoid the ice, did forbid any 

 closer approach to Cape Farewell which, surrounded as it is by mael- 

 stroms, had become still more dangerous because of the driftice. 

 It is evident that the addendum to Ivar Bardsson's sailing direction, 

 viz. to get Mount Hvitserk north before sailing along the west-coast 

 to Hvarf and the Ericsfjord is founded on experience. 



Cape Farewell. 



The numerous sailing directions recorded in Gr. Hist. Mindesm. 

 agree pretty well with this, but are fragmentary and obscure on account 

 of the curious terms by which distance in time and place is measu- 

 red. Ivar Bardsson's and BjOrn Jonsson's directions however are 

 so definite and clear that they might be used even now if the ice con- 

 ditions had remained unchanged. In our time however the sounds in 

 the archipelago of South Greenland are shut up by ice and the ancient 

 Eriksstefna is closed. Cape Farewell is surrounded by storm-clouds 

 and mists so as to be seldom visible. Still rarer will the alpine 

 peaks beyond it be visible, least ways not on so close approach to it 

 as the rise of land suggests. Nor is it possible to stear on Hvarfsgnipa 

 (Cape Egede) and to put into Herjolfsnas sound (Fredriksdal) which 

 nowadays is so inaccessible that Nordenskiold's ship, the Sophia, was 

 said to be the first European ship to anchor in that harbour since 

 the time of the colonies. The way to take now is by Cape Desolation, 

 passing through Torsukatak sound at Nunarsuit and others of the in- 

 ner straits between the coast and the surrounding ice-girdle until 

 you reach the fjords of the ancient Osterbygd. 



One more statement has to be examined, viz. Bjorn Jons- 

 son's description (in the Gripla) of the three glaciers on the east-coast ». 



»to the one glacier no one has penetrated (naturally the 

 one farthest north) to the second is one months journey, to 

 the third is one weeks journey. It is nearest to the settle- 

 ment, it is called fivitserk, there the land bends nortbwards.» 



According to Gisle Brynjulfsson, Bjorn J onssons statements does 

 not allude to a journey from Iceland with the swift sailing-ships of 

 the Vikings. What is really meant is a journey in rowing-boats star- 

 ting from the southermost places of the Osterbygd and going east 

 and northeast. Brynjulfsson estimates that 30 eng. miles a day would 

 be covered in this manner. Thus the Puisortok-glacier would be rea- 

 ched in a we,ek. This glacier Brynjulfsson concludes to be Hvitserk. 



Even if we admit that it is possible to cover 30 miles a day in a calm 

 sea with a rowing boat, the experience of Gieseke, Holm, Graah a. O. 

 show that it requires 6 weeks rather than 6 days under the present 

 conditions to go from Ilua or Fredriksdal by way of the sounds to 

 the east-coast in 60° lat. and thence to Puisortok inlat. 62°10. Even 

 if we assume with Brynjulfsson, that the ice-conditions 600 years ago 

 were so favourable as to allow the distance to Puisortok to be cove- 

 red in only 6 days, still Gripla's description of Hvitserk does not fit 

 in with Puisortok because of the words: 



»it is nearest the settlement, there the land bends north- 

 wards. » 



This description instead fits in on the highland between 

 Allumlengri and the fjord Kangerdluksuatsiak, where the highest 

 mountain-peaks in south Greenland are situated. With open water 

 it would be quite possible to reach this place on the eastcoast inlat. 

 60°- — 60° 15' in a weeks journey by rowing-boat passing through the 

 Allumlengri-sound or the Ikek. There, at the eastern inlet to these sounds, 

 the coast really bends north-wards. It is signifcant too that all expeditions 

 sent out in the 15th and 16th century to rediscover the lost colonies 

 had orders to approach Greenland (and attempted to do so) 

 from the eastside. In the maps from the 15th and 16 centuries, e. g. 

 in that of Thorlacius, the two sounds play a prominent part. These 

 maps are of no use however for the problem we here try to solve 

 and since the two sounds were confounded with the two inlets 

 on Americas coast discovered by Frobisher they have become a sub- 

 ject of endless idle discourses among geographers. The fact however 

 that in these maps two sounds are shown through the South of Green- 

 land shows, that the tradition of the Eriksstefna of the eastern in- 

 lets to the Osterbygd had survived the closing of these passages by 

 the driftice. 



I reproduce here the contourlines of such a map discovered by 

 H. Pettersson in the archive of British Museum. 



Evidently the ice-conditions of Davids Sound and Baffins Bay 

 were also different in the Viking-age. A large contingent of the drift- 

 ice in Davis Sound is supplied by the Greenland ice current. Failing 

 this supply, the quantity of ice in 

 Davis Sound and the Labrador cur- 

 rent will be reduced. Besides a de- 

 crease in the ice would mean an in- 

 crease in the heat supplied by the 

 Gulf stream-branches. We may there- 

 fore a p r i o r i conclude that the La- 

 brador current in Mediaeval time did 

 not carry ice, or at least not in the 

 same degree as at present. This 

 conclusion is born out by the fact 

 that no mention is made in the Sagas 

 and the existant documents from year 

 1000 to the end of the Middle-ages 



of ice as impeding the traffic between Greenland and Wineland. It is 

 impossible that the Greenland colonists should have landed on the 

 Labrador coast or Newfoundland without having been in contact with 

 the driftice and icebergs of the Labrador current. The complete 

 silence on this point is remarkable and becomes still more so when 

 we remember that the records of Cabot, who discovered Newfound- 

 land in 1497, do not mention ice or ice-hinderances. In the records 

 of the journey of the younger Sebastian Cabot in 1508 — 1509 to the 

 coast of America (which however is considered unreliable) it is said 

 that he went as far as lat. 60° and saw quantities of ice in the sea at 

 a depth of more than 100 fathoms (which means that he was in the 

 Labrador current). But in a later journey, 1516 or 1517, he is said to 

 have gone as far as lat. 67 y 2 ° and there found open sea and no hinde- 

 rance from ice. This is one reason why Nansen, who finds it surprising 

 that ice is not mentioned in connection with the elder Cabot's jour- 

 ney to Newfoundland, doubts the veracity of Sebastian Cabot's jour- 

 ney to these parts in 1516 — 1517. 



This however is immaterial. Fact is, that reports of ice outside 

 the American coast are not forthcoming till the 15 th century although 

 communication with that continent was established as early as the 10th 

 century as recorded in the ancient literature. The utter silence on 

 this subject in the records would be inexplicable if the Labrador cur- 

 rent had had the same character then as now. 



The first mention of ice im American waters we find in Corte Re- 

 ales journeys to Newfoundland in 1501, further in the journey to St. 

 Lorent's Bay in 1534, and in Frobishers (1576—1578) and Davis (1585 

 — 1587). Records of ice at that time however are very rare and the 15th 

 century explorers of the coast of America do not appear to have been 

 much troubled by ice, whereas the eastcoast of Greenland was then 

 already blocked by ice and quite inaccessible. In the 16th century 

 the conditions were changed and the account of Hudson's 3rd and last 

 journey mentions ice and ice-hindrances which shows that at least 

 along the Labrador coast conditions were approaching the present 



C.Tarveh 



A map of the regions and countries 

 round the North Pole by John Seller 

 Hydrographer to the King (van Loos 

 Atlas 1666). 



— 14 — 



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