176 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
—Great Ireland, or the White Man’s Land. When 
Pizarro penetrated into the heart of Mexico, a tradition 
already existed of the previous arrival of white men from 
the East. Among the Shawnasee Indians a story is 
still preserved of Florida having been once inhabited by 
white men, who used iron instruments. In 1658, Sir 
Erland the Priest had in his possession a chart, even 
then thought ancient, of “ The Land of the White Men, 
or Hibernia Major, situated opposite Yinland the Good 
and Gaelic philologists pretend to trace a remarkable 
affinity between many of the American-Indian dialects 
and the ancient Celtic. 
But to return to the “ Foam.” After passing the cape, 
away we went across the spacious Brieda Fiord, at the 
rate of nine or ten knots an hour, reeling and bounding 
at the heels of the steamer, which seemed scarcely to 
feel how uneven was the surface across which we were 
speeding. Down dropped Snaefell beneath the sea, and 
dim before us, clad in evening haze, rose the shadowy 
steeps of Bardestrand. The north-west division of Ice¬ 
land consists of one huge peninsula, spread out upon the 
sea like a human hand, the fingers just reaching over 
the Arctic circle ; while up between them run the gloomy 
