The natives, who inhabited a bay lying to the northward of Trinity, and came occasionally thither in their canoes, are described as broadbreasted and upright, with black eyes, and without beards; the hair on their heads was of different colours; some had black, some brown, and others yellow. In this variety they differed from the other savages of North America, who have uniformly black hair, unless it be grown gray with age.

The climate is represented as more mild in the winter than that of England; but much colder in the spring, by reason of the vast islands of ice which are driven into the bays or grounded on the banks.

On the northeastern coast of Labrador, between the latitudes of 53° and 56°, are many excellent harbours and islands. The seas are full of cod, the rivers abound with salmon, and the climate is said to be more mild than in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Nothing is said in any of these accounts of vines or grapes, excepting that some which were brought from England had thriven well. If any evidence can be drawn from a comparison between the countries of Newfoundland and New-England, it may be observed, that all the above-mentioned fruits

and berries are found in the northern and eastern parts of New-England as far as Nova Scotia, in the latitudes of 44° and 45°, and that grapes (vitis vulpina, vitis labrusca) are known to grow wherever these fruits are found.

De Monts, in his voyage to Acadia in 1608, speaks of grapes in several places; and they were in such plenty on the Isle of Orleans, in lat. 47°, that it was first called the Island of Bacchus.* Though there is no direct and positive testimony of grapes in the Island of Newfoundland, it is by no means to be concluded that there were none. Nor is it improbable that grapes, though once found there, might have been so scarce as not to merit notice in such general descriptions as were given by the first English adventurers.

The distance between Greenland and Newfoundland is not greater than between Iceland and Norway, and there could be no more difficulty in navigating the western than the eastern parts of the northwestern ocean with such vessels as were then in use, and by such seamen as the Normans are said to have

It is also said that Mr. Ellis met with the vine about the English settlements at Hudson's Bay, and compares the fruit of it to the currants of the Levant.-Morse's Un. Geo., vol. i., p. 64.

VH

been, though they knew nothing of the mag netic needle.

Upon the whole, though we can come to no positive conclusion in a question of such remote antiquity, yet there are many circumstances to confirm, and none to disprove, the relation given of the voyages of Biron.* But if it be allowed that he is entitled to the honour of having discovered America before Columbus, yet this discovery cannot in the least detract from the merit of that celebrated navigator. For there is no reason to suppose that Columbus had any knowledge of the Norman discoveries, which long before his time were forgotten, and would, perhaps, never have been recollected, if he had not, by the astonishing exertions of his genius and his persevering industry, effected a discovery of this continent in a climate more friendly to the views of commercial adventurers.

Even Greenland itself, in the fifteenth century, was known to the Danes and Normans only by the name of lost Greenland, and they did not recover their knowledge of it till af

* At my request, Governor WENTWORTH, of Nova Scotia, has employed a proper person to make inquiry into any vestiges of this ancient colony which may yet be subsisting. I am sorry that the result could not be had before the publication of this volume, but when it comes to hand it shall be communicated.

ter the English had ascertained its existence by their voyages to discover a N.W. passage to the Pacific Ocean, and the Dutch had coasted it in pursuit of whales.

[The recent publications of the Society of Northern Antiquaries at Copenhagen have thrown new light upon the adventures and discoveries of Biron and those who followed him. It has been thought advisable, instead of illustrating the text by notes, to give entire the life of Biron by Belknap, which deserves to be perpetuated for its ingenious statements and conjectures, and to add the abstract of information and evidence on the subject which is contained in the " Antiquitates Americanæ," and which will give a complete and connected view of all the knowledge we have relating to it.-H.]

AN ABSTRACT OF THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE CONTAINED IN THE ANTIQUITATES AMERICANÆ, BY C. C. RAFN, SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ANTIQUARIES.

BIARNE HERIULFSON'S VOYAGE IN THE YEAR 986. ERIC THE RED, in the spring of 986, emigrated from Iceland to Greenland, formed a settlement there, and fixed his residence at

Brattalid in Ericsfiord. Among others who accompanied him was Heriulf Bardson, who established himself at Heriulfsnes. BIARNE, the son of the latter, was at that time absent on a trading voyage to Norway; but in the course of the summer returning to Eyrar, in Iceland, and finding that his father had taken his departure, this bold navigator resolved "still to spend the following winter, like all the preceding ones, with his father," although neither he nor any of his people had ever navigated the Greenland Sea. They set sail, but met with northerly winds and fogs, and, after many days' sailing, knew not whither they had been carried. At length, when the weather again cleared up, they saw a land which was without mountains, overgrown with wood, and having many gentle elevations. As this land did not correspond to the descriptions of Greenland, they left it on the larboard hand, and continued sailing two days, when they saw another land which was flat and overgrown with wood. From thence they stood out to sea, and sailed three days with a S.W. wind, when they saw a third land which was high and mountainous, and covered with icebergs (glaciers); they did not go on shore, as Biarne did not find the