Father Fischer briefly recapitulates the last verdict of science on these interesting settlements. The Icelandic writers speak of an Eastern and a Western Settlement in Greenland. Many authorities, foremost among them Nordenskiöld, held that the Eastern Settlement, represented by the medieval Norse authorities as by far more important than the Western Settlement, lay on the eastern coast of Greenland. But on the eastern coast of Greenland few, very few remains of old buildings are found, while the south is well known to possess many such ruins. Nordenskiöld declared that the buildings on the southwest coast were not Norse at all, but of much more recent date. Fortunately, Gudmundsson had thoroughly investigated the private dwellings of Iceland built in the time of the Sagas. In 1896 D. Bruun proceeded to Julianshaab, and carefully studied the ruins there existing, and compared their construction with that of modern buildings in Iceland. These researches proved that the old ruins in Greenland strikingly resemble the modern buildings in Iceland, and that the ruins at Julianshaab are really old Norse ruins. From this the inference was drawn that the district called in the Sagas the Eastern Settlement really lay on the west coast of Greenland. Guided by these thorough researches Finnur Jónsson determined the topography of Greenland according to the statements in the old Norse books, and constructed a map fixing the sites of the ancient estates and other places with their modern equivalents. In this way one hundred and seventeen churches and estates have been identified, though the site of Gardar, the episcopal see, is still a matter of dispute. Brattahlid, the home of Eric the Red, according to Jónsson, lay on the Ericsfjord, now Tunugdliarfik.

The researches of the Scandinavian savants have also thrown light on the number of colonists settled in Greenland. It is established now that the entire population of Gardar, the only episcopal see of Greenland, numbered not more than five thousand souls, who were distributed over two hundred and eighty estates. The buildings in Greenland, whether houses, stables, or barns, were constructed of stones found on the spot, the same being simply held together by their weight, or the

stones were bonded by layers of sods. The edifices built after the latter method have crumbled to ruins, while the former in many cases are well preserved. None of these ancient buildings rose to a height of more than one story, and they rarely afforded room for more than five persons. The Greenlanders were hunters, fishermen, or cattle-breeders. The kitchenmiddings of Greenland contain the bones of a small species of horned cattle, of goats, sheep, small horses, and strong dogs. Of the native fauna remnants of the white bear, the polar fox, the walrus, the reindeer, and especially the seal were found. The remains of birds and fish were surprisingly rare. Money was not known, apparently; accordingly the people of Greenland paid their tithes in sealskins, calfskins, the teeth of whales, and in whalebone.

Their occupations as cattle-raisers and hunters led the Greenlanders to great distances from their homes. In Greenland every farmer of note owned one or more fishing-smacks. In these they regularly sailed as far north as the seventy-second degree of north latitude; occasionally, however, they penetrated much farther. For instance, in 1266 some craft sent out to reconnoitre the north of Greenland for Skralings, pushed so far northward as to reach about 75° 46′ north latitude according to modern calculations. This is in the vicinity of Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait. About 1135 A.D. the island of Kingiktorsak (72° 55') was visited by three bold Greenlanders, who erected a stone with a runic inscription, which was recovered in 1824 and acknowledged to be genuine even by the cautious Winsor. The inscription states that Erling son of Sighvat, Bjarne son of Thord, and Einriddr son of Odd, penetrated to this spot and erected this stone on the Saturday preceding the day of victory (April 25th). The explorations of the Greenlanders extended to the east coast of Greenland also, and in 1194 they discovered Spitzbergen, as Storm has proved.

In the midst of this wild, adventurous life, the Northmen in Greenland, far from falling into savagery, found time and taste to cultivate the Muses. In this respect they were fully

the peers of the Icelander; among them the Saga flourished no less than in Iceland. It is certainly interesting to note that the parts of the Edda which tell us the story of the Burgundians Günther and Hagen and of King Attila (the Atli Songs) are the compositions of a Greenlandish bard.

Nordenskiöld's statement that no Norse antiquities have been found in Greenland is incorrect. Boye and other antiquarians give lists of old Norse remains found in only five places, summing up to four hundred. The most of them are fragments of vessels made of steatite or soapstone. Their Norse origin is established by the runes inscribed on them. Pieces of soapstone have come to light bearing rudely incised crosses, some of them Latin, others St. Andrew's crosses. Besides soapstone, the only other stones found are one specimen of flint and a few fragments of whetstones made of sandstone. As all communication between Greenland and Europe practically ceased in the fourteenth century, naturally few metal objects were found. Iron is represented by nails, bolts, three knives, a hook, a padlock and key; bronze by a few fragments, notably by a part of the crown of a church bell. But one specimen was found respectively of clay, leather, and woollen goods, while of bone objects there is a much greater variety, including combs and checkers.

The pitchers and pots of soapstone were shaped with knives; indeed most of the holes were pierced with knives, though a few were bored, especially the spinning-whortles, which occur frequently and are sometimes flat, sometimes sharp. Some potsherds were pierced by nails or iron wires.

Of the four churches mentioned in the Norse records as existing in the Western Settlement, two have been identified; of the twelve in the Eastern Settlement, five. The length of these buildings varied from fifty-two to sixty-five feet; their average breadth measured twenty-six feet. They are constructed of large stones carefully selected.

From an anthropological point of view the finds in the cemeteries of Kagsiarsuk on the Igaliko Fjord and of Ikigait challenge interest. In the former the corpses were buried close to one another near the surface, between large stones, the

head toward the west and the body bent. No traces of coffins or cerecloths appeared. At Ikigait, on the contrary, some corpses were found interred at a great depth in coffins without Wooden nails were used in the construction of the coffins. The bodies were wrapped in brown woollen cloth. In the coffins were found a few small rudely carved crosses.

We have thus placed before our readers a fairly complete picture of the Norse colony of Greenland, of its size, its resources, the employments of its inhabitants, their civilization, their naval and literary achievements. Father Fischer closes his account of the first European colony in America by relating the sad story of its destruction. As early as 1347 direct intercourse between Greenland and Iceland had ceased. There was still communication between Bergen in Norway and Greenland. We may remark that since 1261 the king of Norway was the sovereign of Greenland. In 1346 the royal trading-ship (the Knorr) arrived at Bergen from Greenland in good condition. When the Knorr next sailed for Greenland in 1355, it bore with it an expedition under Paul Knutsson sent to save Christianity in Greenland and repel the Eskimos. There is no record of the return of the royal ship. But as the prelate who had for many years been administrator of the see of Gardar, Ivar Bardsson, is found in Norway in the year 1364, we may infer that the Knorr returned shortly before.

Ivar tells us the story of the ruin of the Western Settlement.* The royal governor had ordered Ivar to expel the Eskimos from the Western Settlement. When he came there he found neither Christians nor pagans, nothing but roving sheep and cattle, which he took home with him to Gardar. In 1379, the Icelandish annals tell us, the Skralings again attacked the Greenlanders, killing eighteen men and carrying off two boys. The Eastern Settlement was now visited by the hostile inroads of the Eskimos. The wrecking of ships, the plague (1392), the attack of Bergen by the German fleet in 1393, contributed to fill the cup of Greenland's misery. The last European ship reached Greenland in 1406, having been carried there by tempests; it

* Major, H. The Voyages of the Brothers Nicolo and Antonio Zeno (Hakluyt Publications), p. 53.

returned to Norway four years later. The last documents brought home by these venturesome mariners witness the marriage of Thorstein Olafsson to Sigrithr Bjornsdottir.

A brief of Alexander VI. dated in the first year of his reign (1492-3) is the last historical document dealing with the old Norse colony of Greenland. It informs us that the poverty of its inhabitants was so great that their only food was dried fish and milk. Since eighty years no ship had touched its shores. No bishop nor priest remained there, and a great part of the people had become pagans. The inhabitants who had preserved the faith possessed, as the only memorial of the Christian religion, a corporal on which the last priest in Greenland had for the last time consecrated the sacred host. Alexander VI. ordered the consecration of the Benedictine monk Mathias as Bishop of Gardar. Of the further fortunes of Bishop Mathias there is no record.

Thus ends the story of the old Norse colony in Greenland, the first European colony in the New World. Do its annals throw any light on the question of the Norse discovery of the Western Continent? Only in an indirect way. They tell us: 1. That the position of Greenland and the bold, able seamanship of its inhabitants make it probable a priori that they should find their way to the eastern coast of North America, if only by accident, as Leif Ericson is reported to have done. 2. That the slim population and the poverty and weakness of the Greenland settlements make it unlikely that the Greenlanders founded any colonies in Vinland. 3. That the Norse annals themselves know of no Norse colony in Vinland or any other part of the Western Continent. On the other hand, it must be confessed that the gross ignorance implied in the fact that the old Northmen called their two settlements the Western and the Eastern, when in reality the Eastern Settlement was situated on the southwest coast of Greenland, justly warns us not to be too trustful in the geographical data of the Norse documents. But, however sceptical we may be, it is difficult to place Helluland, Markland, and Vinland anywhere except on the northeastern coast of America.