It is stated, for instance, that they sailed out of this frith or sound into another sea, and into the innermost part of a gulf, and that their returning voyage occupied several days. As to the two observations mentioned as having been taken on St. James's day, the first of them leads to no certain result, as we have no sure means of ascertaining the depth of the boat, or, rather, the relative depth of the man's position as he lay across the boat, in reference to the height of the side of the same, so as to enable us to deduce the angle formed by the upper edge of the boat's side and the man's face, which is the angle measuring the sun's altitude at noon on St. James's day, or the 25th of July. If we assume, as we may do with probability, that it was somewhat less than 33°, and yet very near that measure, the place must have been situate near north latitude 75°. There seems no probability that it was a larger angle, and, consequently, that the place lay more to the southward. The result obtained from the other observation is, however, more satisfactory. In the thirteenth century, on the 25th of July, the sun's declination was + 17° 54′; inclination of the ecliptic, 23° 32'. If we now assume that the colony, and particularly

the episcopa. seat of Garbar, was situate on the north side of Igaliko Frith, where the ruins of a large church and of many other buildings indicate the site of a principal settlement of the ancient colony, consequently in 60° 55′ north latitude, then, at the summer solstice, the height of the sun there, when in the northwest, was = 3° 40', equivalent to the midnight altitude of the sun on St. James's day in the parallel of 75° 46', which falls a little to the north of Barrow's Strait, being in the latitude of Wellington's Channel, or close to the northward of the same. The voyage

of discovery undertaken by the Greenland clergyman was therefore carried to regions which in our days have been more accurately explored, and their geographical position determined by Sir William Parry, Sir John Ross, and Captain James Clark Ross, and other British navigators, in the no less daring and dangerous expeditions conducted by them.

NEWFOUNDLAND REDISCOVERED FROM ICELAND.

The discovery next recorded was made by the Iceland clergymen ADALBRAND and THORWALD HELGASON, well known in the history of Iceland as having been involved in the

disputes at that time prevailing between the Norwegian king, Eric Priesthater, and the clergy, and which in Iceland were chiefly headed by the governor, Rafa Oddson, and Arne Thorlakson, bishop of Skalholt. Accounts drawn up by contemporaries contain merely the brief notice, that in the year 1285 the above-mentioned clergymen discovered a new land to the westward of Iceland (fundu nyja land). This land, to which, by command of King Eric Priesthater, a voyage was some years afterward projected by LandaRolf, is supposed to have been Newfoundland.

A VOYAGE TO MARKLAND IN THE YEAR 1347.

The last piece of information respecting America which our ancient manuscripts have preserved, refers to a voyage in the year 1347 from Greenland to MARK-LAND, performed in a vessel having a crew of seventeen men, being probably undertaken for the purpose of bringing home building-timber and other supplies from that country. On the voyage homeward from Markland, the ship was driven out of her course by storms, and arrived with loss of anchors at Straumfiord, in the west of Iceland. From the accounts, scanty as they are, of this voyage, written by

a contemporary nine years after the event, it would appear that the intercourse between Greenland and America proper had been kept up to so late a date as the year above mentioned; for it is expressly said that the ship went to Markland, which is thus named as a country that in those days was still known and visited.

*

After having perused the authentic documents themselves, which are now accessible to all, every one will acknowledge the truth of the historical fact, that during the tenth and eleventh centuries, the ancient Northmen discovered and visited a great extent of the eastern coasts of North America; and will, besides, be led to the conviction that, during the centuries immediately following, the intercourse never was entirely discontinued. The main fact is certain and indisputable. On the other hand, there are in these, as in all other ancient writings, certain portions of the narrative which are obscure, and which subsequent disquisitions and new interpretations may serve to clear up. On this account it seems of importance that the original sources of information should be published in the ancient language, so that every one may have

it in his power to consult them, and to form his own judgment as to the accuracy of the interpretations given.

With regard to such traces of the resi dence and settlement of the ancient Northmen as, it is presumed, are still to be met with in Massachusetts and Rhode Island (the countries which formed the destination of their earliest American expeditions), we shall content ourselves for the present with referring to the hints which are contained in the "ANTIQUITATES AMERICANE." This matter will continue to form a subject for the accurate investigation of the COMMITTEE of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries on THE ANTE-COLUMBIAN HISTORY OF AMERICA; and the result of this investigation, together with such additional elucidations of the ancient manuscripts as we may have it in our power to furnish, shall be communicated in the ANNALS and MEMOIRS of the Society.]