Chinese legends. In fact, many scholars are now convinced
that the eastern coast of Canada was known and visited
by the Norsemen five hundred years before Columbus.

From time immemorial the Norsemen were among the most
daring and skilful mariners ever known. They built great
wooden boats with tall, sweeping bows and sterns. These
ships, though open and without decks, were yet stout and
seaworthy. Their remains have been found, at times lying
deeply buried under the sand and preserved almost intact.
One such vessel, discovered on the shore of Denmark,
measured 72 feet in length. Another Viking ship, which
was dug up in Norway, and which is preserved in the museum
at Christiania, was 78 feet long and 17 feet wide. One
of the old Norse sagas, or stories, tells how King Olaf
Tryggvesson built a ship, the keel of which, as it lay
on the grass, was 74 ells long; in modern measure, it
would be a vessel of about 942 tons burden. Even if we
make allowance for the exaggeration or ignorance of the
writer of the saga, there is still a vast contrast between
this vessel and the little ship Centurion in which Anson
sailed round the world.

It is needless, however, to prove that the Norsemen could
have reached America in their ships. The voyages from
Iceland to Greenland which we know they made continually
for four hundred years were just as arduous as a further
voyage from Greenland to the coast of Canada.

The story of the Norsemen runs thus. Towards the end of