30 Gustav Норм. 
and from Helluland he did not leave the coast as there had been no 
necessity of doing so. 
Gathorne-Hardy writes!) how difficult and dangerous the navigation 
of Labrador's coast is in early summer, on account of floating ice, which 
Karlsefni does not mention. Gagnon thinks that Karlsefni has continued 
sailing from Labrador along Newfoundland and would hardly venture 
into the Strait of Belle Isle where the state of ice is nearly always 
difficult. 
It must be remarked that floating ice is not once mentioned in 
the sagas, neither here nor in the navigating of Eystri Bygd in Green- 
land. The Storis (floating ice) in the time of the Northmen, could not 
have been in such masses at the place last mentioned, as at present, 
where it blocks the Bay of Julianehaab the greater part of the summer?). 
That the Storis increased during the historical period is mentioned in 
ancient accounts?) and is a necessary stipulation so as to be able to 
understand how the ancient Northmen had been able to navigate Eystri 
Bygd, the present Julianehaab’s district). It is not improbable that 
the floating-ice’s manner of proceeding has undergone а similar change 
on Labrador’s coast. | 
After Karlsefnis expedition had left Helluland, Steensby con- 
tinues%), “Thence they sailed for two days and bore away from the 
south to the south-west’. This must be a mistake, as, instead of the 
last clause, it is written in Hauksbok “and bore away from the south 
toward the south-east” (р. 22), whilst in AM. 557 there is written “with 
northerly winds”, which presumably is right. Therefore Steensby cannot 
take the turning “south-west” for granted that Karlsefni followed the 
coast of the mainland through the Strait of Belle Isle. 
Steensby writes further on®): “Thence (i.e. from Markland) they 
sailed for a long time southwards along the land, and came to a pro- 
montory. The country lay to starboard; there were extensive sandy 
1) ор. cit. pp. 242 and 264. 
2) Medd. om Gronl. Vol. VI р. 181; Vol. LXI р. 380. 
3) Ivar Bardson’s description of Greenland: “... thette vaar gammell seylling, 
en nu er kommen is udaff landnordenbotne . . .” (Medd. om Gronl. Vol. ХХ, р. 322). 
4) Medd. om Gronl. Vol. VI, р. 73. — All old lists of fjords and churches issue 
from Herjulfsness (the present Ikigait) where the sagas also mention that the ships 
first came to land. This place, Ikigait, could now only with great difficulty be navi- 
gated on account of the floating ice. — O. Pettersson has in “Klimatforandringar 
i historisk och forhistorisk Tid”, Upsala og Stockholm 1913, examined the reason 
for the change in the spreading of the Storis in the 14th century. He expresses a 
theory that Baffin Bay and the Labrador stream being one thousand years ago 
relatively free of ice, which influenced the climate of Newfoundland and North 
America; in short, the polar ice melted at higher latitudes than it does now. 
2) Oo Gills Wo GAL 6) ibid. p. 166. 
