Domestication_, London, 1868, vol. i pp. 27, 77, 84.]

[Footnote 267: The views of Professor Horsford as to the
geographical situation of Vinland and its supposed colonization
by Northmen are set forth in his four monographs, _Discovery of
America by Northmen--address at the unveiling of the statue of
Leif Eriksen_, etc., Boston, 1888; _The Problem of the
Northmen_, Cambridge, 1889; _The Discovery of the Ancient City
of Norumbega_, Boston, 1890; _The Defences of Norumbega_,
Boston, 1891. Among Professor Horsford's conclusions the two
principal are: 1. that the "river flowing through a lake into
the sea" (Rafn, p. 147) is Charles river, and that Leif's
booths were erected near the site of the present Cambridge
hospital; 2. that "Norumbega"--a word loosely applied by some
early explorers to some region or regions somewhere between the
New Jersey coast and the Bay of Fundy--was the Indian utterance
of "Norbega" or "Norway;" and that certain stone walls and dams
at and near Watertown are vestiges of an ancient "city of
Norumbega," which was founded and peopled by Northmen and
carried on a more or less extensive trade with Europe for more
than three centuries.

With regard to the first of these conclusions, it is perhaps as
likely that Leif's booths were within the present limits of
Cambridge as in any of the numerous places which different
writers have confidently assigned for them, all the way from
Point Judith to Cape Breton. A judicious scholar will object
not so much to the conclusion as to the character of the
arguments by which it is reached. Too much weight is attached
to hypothetical etymologies.

With regard to the Norse colony alleged to have flourished for
three centuries, it is pertinent to ask, what became of its
cattle and horses? Why do we find no vestiges of the
burial-places of these Europeans? or of iron tools and weapons
of mediaeval workmanship? Why is there no documentary mention,
in Scandinavia or elsewhere in Europe, of this transatlantic
trade? etc., etc. Until such points as these are disposed of,
any further consideration of the hypothesis may properly be
postponed.]