inhospitable character of the two great islands that served as
stepping-stones from the Old World to the New. Iceland with its
glaciers, storms, and long dreary winters is bad enough.
Greenland is worse. Merely the tip of that island was known to
the Norse --and small wonder, for then as now most of Greenland
was shrouded in ice. Various Scandinavian authors, however, have
thought that during the most prosperous days of the vikings the
conditions in Greenland were not quite so bad as at the present
day. One settlement, Osterbyden, numbered 190 farms, 12 churches,
2 monasteries, and 1 bishopric. It is even stated that
apple-trees bore fruit and that some wheat was raised. "Cattle-
raising and fishing," says Pettersson, "appear to have procured a
good living . . . . At present the whole stock of cattle in
Greenland does not amount to 100 animals."* In those days the ice
which borders all the east coast and much of the west seems to
have been less troublesome than now. In the earliest accounts
nothing is said of this ice as a danger to navigation. We are
told that the best sailing route was through the strait north of
Cape Farewell Island, where today no ships can pass because of
the ice. Since the days of the Norsemen the glaciers have
increased in size, for the natives say that certain ruins are now
buried beneath the ice, while elsewhere ruins can be seen which
have been cut off from the rest of the country by advancing
glacial tongues.

* O. Pettersson, "Climatic Variations in Historic and Prehistoric
Times." Svenska Hydrogrifisk--Biologiska Kommissioneur Skrifter,
Haft V. Stockholm.