DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 29 there were very narrow shoals. When the ship got aground there were shallows of great extent between the vessel and the receded sea. So great was the desire of the men to go on land that they were unwilling to stay on board until the returning tide floated the ship. They went ashore at a place where a river flowed out from a lake. When the tide floated the ship, they took the boat and rowed to the vessel and brought her into the river and then into the lake. Here they anchored, carried the luggage from the ship, and built dwellings. Afterward they held a consultation and resolved to remain at this place during the winter. Then they erected large buildings. There were not only many salmon in the river but also in the lake and of a larger size than they had before seen. So great was the fertility of the soil that they were led to believe that cattle would not be in want of food during winter, or that wintry coldness would prevail, or the grass wither much." While the Northmen were passing the winter on the shore of the unnamed lake, it happened one evening that a Southern man, named Tyrker, did not return with those who had been out exploring the country. Those who went to search for the absent. man met him returning to the quarters. They were surprised when he told them that he had found winewood and wine-berries (vinvid ok vinber). "Is this true, my teacher?" asked Leif. "It is really true," Tyrker replied, "for where I was brought up there was not wanting either wine-wood or wine-berries." They passed this night in sleep, but on the following morning Leif said to the men: "Two things are now to be done on alternate days, gathering wine-berries or hewing wine-wood and felling trees, (lesa vinber, edr 30 DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. höggva vinvid ok fella mörkina,) with which my ships should be loaded." Having loaded the ship and the spring approaching they prepared to depart. To designate the productions of the region, Leif called it Vinland (Wine-land). They then put to sea and had a favorable wind until they came in sight of Greenland.' As a number of writers have assumed that the region of Vinland, where Leif and his companions wintered, was the country adjacent Mount Hope Bay, in Rhode Island, the following description of a part of the east coast of Greenland, given by Captain W. A. Graah, who was sent there, in 1828, by the Danish government to obtain information respecting the site of the eastern settlement (eystri bygd), will likely afford grounds for a more plausible conjecture that Vinland was a region in Greenland: " August 30 [1829].The place we now were at was the Ekallumiut [between the sixty-third and sixty-fourth parallel of north latitude], so often mentioned. The cove, the length of which is between one and two cable-lengths, has on both sides of it, but particularly on the eastern, fields of considerable extent, covered with dwarf-willows, juniper-berry, black crake-berry, and whortleberry heath, the first-named growing to the height of two feet, and the whole interspersed with a good many patches of a fine species of grass, which, however, was very much burnt by the heat of the sun, except in the immediate vicinity of the brooks and rivulets that, in great number, ran down the sides of the hills, and intersected the level land in every direction. At the the bottom of the cove stretches an extensive valley, through which runs a stream abounding in char, [a species of salmon,] and having its source in the glaciers, 'Hèr Hefr Graenlendinga Thátt. Antiq. Amer. pp. 26-40. Discovery of America. Beamish. pp. 59-70. DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 31 of which several gigantic arms reach down into the valley from the height in the background. On the banks of this brook the grass grew luxuriantly; but it was far from being, at many places, of a height fit for mowing, so that even this spot, where grass was more abundant than anywhere else perhaps along the whole coast, does not seem calculated to furnish winter fodder for any considerable number of cattle. Various flowers, among which the sweet-smelling lychnis, everywhere adorned the fields. At this really beautiful spot, the natives of the country round assemble for a few days during their brief summer, to feast upon the char that are to be got here in great plenty and of a great size, the black crake-berry and angelica, and to lay in a stock of them for winter use, and give themselves up to mirth and merry-making." It is further related, in the saga, concerning Vinland, that "the days are more equal there than in Greenland or Iceland; there the sun sets at eykt time (eyktar-stad, 3:30 P.M.), and rises at day-meal time (dagmála-stad, breakfast-time), on the shortest day.”• 'Narrative of an expedition to the east coast of Greenland, sent by order of the king of Denmark, in search of the lost colonies, under the command of Captain W. A. Graah, of the Danish royal navy. Translated from the Danish by the late G. Gordon Macdougall, F.R.S.N.A., for the Royal Geographical Society of London. London, 1837. pp. 106, 107. 244 Meira var thar jafndaegri enn á Graenlandi edr Islandi, sól hafdi thar eyktarstad ok dagmálastad um skamdegi." 66 Dag-mål, n. (vide dagr), prop. ' day-meal,' one of the divisions of the day, usually about eight or nine o'clock, A.M.; the Latin hora tertia is rendered by * er vér köllum dagmál,' which we call d., Hom. [Homiliu-bók], 142; enn er ekki lidit af dagmálum, Hom. (St.) 10. Acts 11, 15; in Glúm. [Viga-Glúms Saga], 342, we are told that the young Glum was very lazy, and lay in bed till day-meal every morning, cp. also 343; Hrafn. [Hrafnkels Saga] 28 and O. H. L. [Olafs Saga Helga Legendaria] 18-áeinum morni milli rismála ok dagmála-where distinction is made between rismal (rising time) and dagmál, so as to make a separate dagsmark (q. v.) of each of them; and again, a distinction is made between 'midday' and dagmal, Ísl. [Islenzkar], 11, 334. The dagmal is thus midway between rising' and 'midday,' which accords well with the |