: a fair wind the ship he commanded was so richly laden, that it was generally admitted that a more valuable cargo had never left Greenland. As soon as the wind became favourable he sailed to Norway, where he spent the following winter and sold his goods. Next year, when he was ready to sail for Iceland, there came a German from Bremen who wanted to buy a piece of wood from him he gave for it half a marc of gold: it was the wood of the Mazer-tree, from Vineland. Karlsefne went to Iceland, and in the following year, 1015, he bought the Glaumbo estate, in Skagefiord, in the northland quar ter, where he resided during the remainder of his life his son Snorre, who had been born in America, was his successor on this estate. When the latter married, his mother made a pilgrimage to Rome, and afterward returned to her son's house at Glaumbæ, where he had in the mean time ordered a ehurch to be built. The mother lived long, as a religious recluse. A numerous and illustrious race descended from Karlsefne, among whom may be mentioned the learned bishop Thorlak Runolfson, born in 1085, of Snorre's daughter Halfrida, to whom we are principally indebted for the oldest ecclesiastical Code of Iceland, published in the year 1123; it is also probable that the accounts of the voyages here mentioned were originally compiled by him. A SURVEY OF THE PRECEDINE EVIDENCE. I. Geography and Hydrography. The It is a fortunate circumstance that these ancient accounts have preserved not only geographical, but also nautical and astronomical facts, that may serve in fixing the posi tion of the lands and places named. nautical facts are of special importance, although hitherto they have not been sufficiently attended to; these consist in statements of the course steered and the distance sailed in a day. From data in the Landnama and several other ancient Icelandic geographical works, we may gather that the distance of a day's sailing was estimated at 27 to 30 geographical miles (German or Danish, of which fifteen are equal to a degree; each of these being, accordingly, equal to four English sea-miles). From the Island of HELLU-LAND, afterward called little Helluland, Biarne sailed to Heriulfsnes (Iki-geit) in Greenland, with strong southwesterly gales, in four days. The distance between that cape and Newfoundland is about one hundred and fifty miles, which will correspond when we take into consideration the strong gales. In modern descriptions it is stated that this land partly consists of naked rocky flats, where no tree, nor even a shrub, can grow, and which are therefore usually called Barrens; thus answering completely to the hellur of the ancient Northmen, from which they named the country. MARKLAND was situate to the southwest of Helluland, distant about three days' sail, or from eighty to ninety miles. Here then we have Nova Scotia, of which the descriptions given by later writers answer to that given by the ancient Northmen of Markland: "the land is low in general;" "the coast to the seaward being level and low, and the shores marked with white rocks ;" "the land is low, with white sandy cliffs, particularly visible at sea," says the new "North American Pilot," by J. W. Norie and another American sailor: "on the shore are some cliffs of exceedingly white sand." Here "level" corresponds completely to the Icelandic "slètt," "low to the seaward" to the short expression "ó-sa-bratt," and "white sandy cliffs" to the "hvít-ir sand-ar" of the Northmen. Nova Scotia, New-Brunswick, and Lower Canada, situate more inland, which probably may be considered as all belonging to the Markland of the Northmen, are almost everywhere covered with immense forests. VINLAND was situate at the distance of two days' sail, consequently from fifty-four to sixty miles, in a southwesterly direction from Markland. The distance from Cape Sable to Cape Cod is stated in nautical works as being W. by S. about seventy leagues, that is, about two hundred miles. Biarne's description of the coast is very accurate, and in the island situate to the eastward (between which and the promontory that stretches to eastward and northward Leif sailed) we recognise Nantucket. The ancient Northmen found there many shallows (grunn-sæfui mikit); modern navigators make mention at the same place "of numerous reefs and other shoals," and say "that the whole presents an aspect of drowned land." KIALARNES (from kiölr, a keel, and nes, a cape, most likely on account of its striking resemblance to the keel of a ship, particularly of one of the long ships of the ancient Northmen) must consequently be Cape Cod, the NAUSET of the Indians, which modern geographers have sometimes likened, to a horn, and sometimes to a sickle or scythe. The ancient Northmen found here trackless deserts (ör-afi), and long narrow beaches and sandhills, or sands (strand-ir láng-ar ok sand-ar) of a very peculiar appearance, on which account they called them FURDU. STRAND-IR (Wonder-strands, from furð-a, res miranda, and strönd, strand, beach.) Compare the description given of this cape by a modern author, Hitchcock: "The Dunes or sandhills, which are often nearly or quite barren of vegetation, and of snowy whiteness, forcibly attract the attention on account of their peculiarity. As we approach the extremity of the cape, the sand and barrenness increase; and in not a few places it would need only a party of Bedouin Arabs to cross the traveller's path to make him feel that he was in the depths of an Arabian or Libyan desert." A remarkable natural phenomenon which is observed there has also most probably had a share in giving rise to that peculiar name. It is thus described by the same author: "In crossing the sands of the cape, I noticed a singular mirage or deception. In Orleans, for instance, we seem |