1846.] 
THE NATIONAL 3NSTITUTE. 
609 
VIEW OF THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARCTIC REGION'S 
OF AMERICA,* BY CHARLES C. RAFN, PERPETUAL SECRETARY 
OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ANTIQUARIES, COPEN¬ 
HAGEN, MARCH 18, 1846: COMMUNICATED FOR THE BULLETIN 
OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE, BY MR. RAFN . 
The east coast of Greenland was, in ancient times, uninhabited by Europeans, 
although from the account of Are Frode, the earliest Icelandic historian, it would 
appear that on the discovery of the country and survey of its coast, there were found, 
both on the east coast and on the west coast, remains indicative of their having 
been resorted to at an earlier period by the Skrcelingar or Esquimaux of America. 
The SVOLBARDE of the ancient Scandinavians, discovered in 1194, appears to 
be the tract of coast surveyed in 1761 by Volkert Bohn of the island of Foehr in 
Denmark, and rediscovered by Scoresby, by whom it is called Liverpool coast. 
The GUNNBIARNARSKER or Gunnbiarnareyiar, discovered in 877 by Gurm- 
biorn Ulfson, will be the islands seen off the coast by Captain W. A. Graah, R. N., 
in.latitude 65'20" N. HVITSERK, the southernmost promontory, Cape Far- 
well ; the chief seat of the colony EYSTRIBYGD, the present district of Julianae- 
haab. The most important of the colonized firths are named in order from South 
to North in four original written sources, of which the latest and most circumstantial 
is a chorography by War Bardson, who in 1311 was sent by Hakon, bishop of 
Bergen, to Greenland, and who for many years was superintendent of the episco¬ 
pal see of Gardar. HERIULFSNES with I1ERIULFSFIRTH, where Heriulf 
Bardson settled in 986, and where his son Biarne Heriulfson arrived in the autumn 
of the same year, after having seen the more southern American coast, is the Iki- 
gat of the present day. Of the church mentioned in Bishop Gudmund Arason’s 
Saga, some of the ruins are still left, and several inscriptions have here been found. 
Ketilsfirth, with its two churches, is the modern Tessermuit, where Mr. J. J. A. Aroe 
found a quantity of ruins. RAFNSFIRTH, which, in the first year of the land- 
nam, or colonization, 986, was colonized by the landnamsmann Rafn, is now Ou- 
nartok. According to the ancient description of War Bardson, of the 14th cen¬ 
tury, there were in this firth islets with springs of hot water. There are in the 
island of Ounartok three warm springs, which have given to the island and firth 
their Esquimaux name, signifying in that language the boiling. Captain Graah, 
who visited the place in July, 1828, found the temperature of the water in these 
springs ranging from 26 to 33£ R. SIGLUFIRTH is now Agluitsok ; here the 
rudera of Voga church were discovered by the Rev. Valentine Muller, who visited 
this firth in the years 1832 and 1833, on behalf of the Society. He saw, moreover, 
the ruins of a mansion belonging to the king, by War Bardson, called Foss, or 
waterfall, situated near a large stream forming a waterfall of two hundred feet in 
height. EINARSFIRTH is Igalikko, the ruins of the cathedral and episcopal 
sec of GARDAR, (which was founded in 1126, and stood for upwards of three cen¬ 
turies,) were rediscovered at Kaksiarsuk, on the eastern arm of this firth. ERICS- 
FIRTH, where the the chief leader of the landnamsmenn or colonists, Eric the Red, 
settled in 986, is now Tunnudluarbik, together with the northern arm of Igalikko 
firth, at which the ruins of the principal settlement of BRATTAHLID, with Leidar 
Kirkia, (the church of the district,) have been found, and especially among the nu¬ 
merous buildings there, rudera of the house of Brattahlid itself, so denominated 
from its having been built up against the side of a steep precipice—from bratti 
and hlid. The Rev. Mr. George F. Joergensen, who has furnished a description 
and ground plan of the whole settlement, which may be compared to an entire 
town, observes that a steep rock forms one of the walls of this house, the building 
of which was accomplished with incredible labor. This house was built by Eric 
the Red, who, in the year 986, made it his residence. It was subsequently occu¬ 
pied at the commencement of the eleventh century by his celebrated son, Leif the 
Happy, and by his grandson, Thorkel Leifson, and it continued down to the latest 
times of the colony to be the abode of the sheriffs, (logmenn.) Here in this 
house the far-famed couple Thorfin Karlsefne and Gudrid Thorbiornsdotter cele¬ 
brated, in 1007, their nuptials, and determined on their remarkable voyage of dis¬ 
covery to that more southern land which, seven years before, had been discovered 
and visited by Leif Ericson, viz : Vinland (the present Massachusetts and Rhode 
Island.) ISAFIRTH, which was the most western firth in the Eystribygd, will b© 
* From accounts contained in old northern manuscripts. 
