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The Dawn of Canadian History : A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada by Stephen Leacock
page 48 of 85 (56%)
wild. He brought his companions to the spot, and they
gathered grapes sufficient to fill their ship's boat. It
was on this account that Leif called the country 'Vineland.'
They found patches of supposed corn which grew wild like
the grapes and reseeded itself from year to year. It is
striking that the Norse chronicle should name these simple
things. Had it been a work of fancy, probably we should
have heard, as in the Chinese legends, of strange demons
and other amazing creatures. But we hear instead of the
beautiful forest extending to the shore, the mountains
in the background, the tangled vines, and the bright
patches of wild grain of some kind ripening in the open
glades-the very things which caught the eye of Cartier
when, five centuries later, he first ascended the St
Lawrence.

Where Vineland was we cannot tell. If the men really
found wild grapes, and not some kind of cranberry, Vineland
must have been in the region where grapes will grow. The
vine grows as far north as Prince Edward Island and Cape
Breton, and, of course, is found in plenty on the coasts
of Nova Scotia and New England. The chronicle says that
the winter days were longer in Vineland than in Greenland,
and names the exact length of the shortest day.
Unfortunately, however, the Norsemen had no accurate
system for measuring time; otherwise the length of the
shortest winter day would enable us to know at what exact
spot Leif's settlement was made.

Leif and his men stayed in Vineland all winter, and sailed
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