surrounds the whole earth." This is the "River Ocean" of Homer, and is used in the Eddas as the name of the watery wastes of Chaos.
Bjarne's voyage to Vinland seems to have really taken place, and to have been accurately described. The accounts of subsequent voyages appear to have been based on Bjarne's, and to be as nearly as possible mere transcripts of it reversed. In 906 Bjarne sailed from Iceland to Greenland, but "after three days' sailing, . . . the land was out of sight under the water," he was driven southward by north winds, with foggy weather for many days. At length he once more saw the sun, and having sailed one day more he sighted land. As the wind had changed from north to southwest, in which quarter it remained steady, it is evident that the northerly gale went round with the sun, i. e., to the east, then to the south, and then to southwest. Had the wind "backed" to the west and southwest, the weather would have been continued unsettled. Hence we conclude that Bjarne's vessel was driven to the banks of Newfoundland, where fogs constantly prevail, whence, the wind veering to the east, south, and southwest, he was driven into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland. The land he first saw was "without mountains, and covered with wood, and had small heights." It was on his larboard side, and was probably one of the Magdalen Islands, or possibly the eastern end of Prince Edward Island. Afterward they sailed two days, when they saw "a flat land covered with wood." This may have been the northwest coast of Newfoundland near the west end of the Strait of Belleisle, which for a long distance is marked on Bayfield's chart as a "low limestone coast." I am informed that there are woods on it, though they may be small compared with the vast forests that are found up the rivers, whence extensive lumbering operations are now being carried on. Bjarne then put to sea for three days, with a southwesterly wind, and saw a third land, which was "high and covered with mountains and ice-hills." They coasted along it, and "saw it was an island." They probably sighted Labrador, and, rounding its southeast point, supposed it to be an island. Thence they sailed with the same favorable southwesterly wind (which grew into a gale) for four days, when they sighted a "fourth land, which was Greenland."
Leif's voyage to Vinland seems, as nearly as possible, a version of Bjarne's reversed. Neither time nor bearings are given, and we are merely told that Leif "found the land first which Bjarne had found last."[1] They saw no grass there. "Great icebergs were over all up the country, but like a plain of flat stones was all from the sea to the mountains." This they called Helluland. They then sailed thence and found another land which was "flat and covered with wood, and white sands were far around where they went, and the
- ↑ In the account of the Saga of Eric the Red, of Karlsefne's voyage, it is simply stated that he sailed to Vinland. The Icelandic Saga of a later date was less cautious, and gives many impossible courses.
