"Dighton Rock" in Massachusetts, and the "Skeleton in
Armor" dug up at Fall River, Mass., and made the subject of a ballad by
Longfellow, have figured prominently in the discussion of this
pre-Columbian discovery. But these conjectural evidences are no longer
regarded as having any connection with historical probability or as
dating back to the time of the Northmen.

It is considered, however, to be pretty certain that at the end of the
tenth century or at the beginning of the eleventh the Northmen reached
the shores of North America. About that time, it is known, they settled
Iceland, and from there a colony went to Greenland, where they long
remained. From there, either by design or by accident, some of them, it
is supposed, may have reached the coast of Labrador, and thence sailed
down until they came to the region which they named Vinland. From there
they sent home glowing accounts to their countrymen in the northern
lands, who came in larger numbers to join them in the New World.

About the middle of the nineteenth century great interest among students
of this subject was aroused by a work written by Prof. C.C. Rafn, of the
Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen. In this work--
_Antiquitates Americanae_--the proofs of this visit of the Northmen to
the shores of North America were convincingly set forth. In the same
work the Icelandic sagas, written in the fourteenth century, and
containing the original accounts of the Northmen's voyages to Vinland,
were first brought prominently before modern scholars. Although many
other writings on the voyages have since appeared, the great work of
Rafn still holds its place of authority, very little in the way of new
material having been brought to light. The portion of his narrative
which follows covers the main facts of the history, and the translation
from the saga furnishes an excellent example of its quaint and simple
narration.)

CHARLES C. RAFN

Eric The Red, in the spring of 986, emigrated from Iceland to Greenland,
formed a settlement there, and fixed his residence at Brattalid in
Ericsfiord. Among others who accompanied him was Heriulf Bardson, who
established himself at Heriulfsnes.

Biarne, the son of the latter, was at that time absent on a trading
voyage to Norway; but in the course of the summer returning to Eyrar, in
Iceland, and finding that his father had taken his departure, this bold
navigator resolved "still to spend the following winter,