374 
ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 
[June 14, 1858. 
tlie original documents, place the situation of the countries discovered beyond 
all doubt. The number of days’ sail between the several newly found lands, 
the striking description of the coasts, especially the white sandbanks of Nova 
Scotia and the long beaches and downs of a peculiar appearance on Cape Cod 
(the Kialarnes and Furdustrandir of the Northmen) are not to be mistaken. 
In addition hereto we have the astronomical remark that the shortest day in 
Yineland was 9 hours long, which fixes the latitude of 41° 24' 10", or just that 
of the promontories which limit the entrances to Mount Hope Bay, where 
Leif’s booths were built, and in the district around which the old Northmen 
had their head establishment, which was named by them Hop. 
The Northmen were also acquainted with American land still farther to the 
south, called by them Iivitramannaland (the land of the White Men) or 
Irland it Mikla (Great Ireland). The exact situation of this country is not 
stated ; it was probably North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. In 
1266 some priests at Gardar in Greenland set on foot a voyage of discovery 
to the Arctic regions of America. An astronomical observation proves that 
this took place through Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait to the latitude 
of Wellington Channel. The last memorandum supplied by the old Icelandic 
records is a voyage from Greenland to Markland in 1347. 
7. Ascent of the Congo — 1857. By Commander J. Hunt.* 
I determined on obtaining some information of that part of the river hitherto 
unexplored, as we found, from Punta de Luisa upwards, the chart was no 
guide to us whatever. About 2 p.m. on the 1st instant I proceeded up the 
river, keeping the left bank. We found the river, instead of being straight, 
as shown in the chart, is a succession of serpentine turns, each point of the 
turn causing a small rapid, at some of which there was apparently a fall of 
from 1 to 3 feet. We had great difficulty in shooting the boats through these 
rushes ; on one or two occasions were obliged to use hauling lines to assist 
us. On these occasions I was kindly assisted by Commander Moresby, of 
the Sappho , who accompanied us. On the nights we anchored. We always 
found convenient anchorage in little bays formed by rocks, and overhung by 
trees of a hardy evergreen species, differing from those at the mouths of African 
rivers. On the 4th instant, at 8 a.m., we reached the commencement of the 
falls, having had extreme difficulty in getting over the last rapids about 2 or 
3 miles below them. From what we could observe, the Falls of Gallala 
below the great fall, which we believed could be but a very short distance 
from the place we reached, are a succession of small falls. The river here we 
found, by experiment with a rifle, was about 200 yards wide, barriered on 
each side by steep rocks and boulders of rocks, rising almost perpendicularly 
in some places from 600 to 800 feet. The fall we reached was something 
between a fall and a rapid, the descent being from about 8 to 10 feet, the 
water shooting out from the angle of the rocks on each side of the river, 
forming the letter Y, the lower part being down the river, the reaction at the 
sides making a terrific surf, which made it impossible to see whether there 
were rocks in the middle or not. Owing to these difficulties in the river, and 
the rocky nature of the land around that part of it, and provisions being short, 
at 11 a.m. we commenced our return, and reached Embourina on the same 
evening, the current running with us from 6 to 9 miles an hour. I returned 
* Extract from a letter addressed to Commander V. G. Hickley, of the 
Childers, by Commander J. Hunt, of the Alecto, dated 15th January, 1857. 
