leaping through the foaming surges. Three days and nights
they ran before the gale. On the fourth day land rose
before them, and this time it was Greenland. There Bjarne
found his father, and there, when not at sea, he settled
for the rest of his days.

Such is the story of Bjarne Herjulf, as the Norsemen have
it. To the unprejudiced mind there is every reason to
believe that his voyage had carried him to America, to
the coast of the Maritime Provinces, or of Newfoundland
or Labrador. More than this one cannot say. True, it is
hard to fit the 'two days' and the 'three days' of Bjarne's
narrative into the sailing distances. But every one who
has read any primitive literature, or even the Homeric
poems, will remember how easily times and distances and
numbers that are not exactly known are expressed in loose
phrases not to be taken as literal.

The news of Bjarne's voyage and of his discovery of land
seems to have been carried presently to the Norsemen in
Iceland and in Europe. In fact, Bjarne himself made a
voyage to Norway, and, on account of what he had done,
figured there as a person of some importance. But people
blamed Bjarne because he had not landed on the new coasts,
and had taken so little pains to find out more about the
region of hills and forests which lay to the south and
west of Greenland. Naturally others were tempted to follow
the matter further. Among these was Leif, son of Eric
the Red. Leif went to Greenland, found Bjarne, bought
his ship, and manned it with a crew of thirty-five. Leif's