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 destination lay to the south-west. It is only possible to explain the passage by somewhat hazardous conjecture. Leif may have first reached the Western Settlement on his return from the voyage of discovery, and Karlsefni, reversing Leif's itinerary, may have been led to make the Western Settlement his point of departure; or there may have been some reason, not mentioned in the saga, which led the voyagers to touch first at the Western Settlement. [Prof. Storm would argue from the situation of Lýsu-firth, the home of Gudrid's first husband in that Settlement, that the expedition may have set sail from there. Cf. Storm, Studier over Vinlandsreiserne, pp. 362–8. In this place Storm calls attention to the fact, that Thorstein Ericsson's unsuccessful voyage was directed from Eric's-firth, which lay considerably farther to the eastward than the Western Settlement, and that he would therefore be less apt to hit the land, than Karlsefni who sailed from the Western Settlement.] The language of EsR. would admit of the conclusion, that the Bear Islands were not far removed from the Western Settlement ['til Vestri-bygdar ok til Biarmeyia' [sic]]; the statement of ÞsK., however, which speaks of Bear Island [in the singular] seems to indicate that the point of departure was not immediately contiguous to that settlement ['til Vestri-bygðar ok þaðan til Biarneyiar'].

(46) Dœgr is thus defined in the ancient Icelandic work on chronometry called Rímbegla: 'In the day there are two "dœgr;" in the "dœgr" twelve hours.' This reckoning, as applied to a sea-voyage, is in at least one instance clearly confirmed, namely in the Saga of Olaf the Saint, wherein it is stated that King Olaf sent Thorarin Nefiolfsson to Iceland: 'Thorarin sailed out with his ship from Drontheim, when the King sailed, and accompanied him southward to Mœri. Thorarin then sailed out to sea, and he had a wind which was so powerful and so favourable [hraðbyrr], that he sailed in eight "dœgr" to Eyrar in Iceland, and went at once to the Althing.' [Saga Óláfs konungs ens helga, ed. Munch and Unger, Chr'a., 1853, pp. 125–6]. Thorarin's starting-point was, doubtless, not far from Stad, the westernmost point of Norway, the Eyrar, at which he arrived, probably, the modern Eyrar-bakki, in southern Iceland, the nearest harbour to the site of the Althing. The time which was consumed in this phenomenal voyage is confirmed by Thorarin's words on his arrival at the Althing: 'I parted with King Olaf, Harold's son, four night ago' [Óláfs saga hins helga, l. c. p. 126]. It is tolerably clear from this passage, that this could not have been a normal voyage, and yet we are told in Landnáma, that from Stad, in Norway, to Horn, on the eastern side of Iceland, is seven 'dœgra-sigling' [a sail of seven 'dœgr']. In the same connection it is also stated, that from Snowfells-ness the shortest distance to Hvarf in Western Greenland, is a sail of four 'dœgr;' from Reykianess, on the southern coast of Iceland, southward to Jölduhlaup in Ireland is five [some MSS. have three] 'dœgr' of sea [Landnáma, pt. i. ch. i]. These and similar statements elsewhere, have led many writers to the conclusion, that the word 'dœgr' may also indicate a longer period than twelve hours, and possibly the same as that assigned to dagr, a day of twenty-four hours. The meaning of the word is not so important to enable us to intelligently interpret the saga, as is the determination of the distance, which was reckoned to an average 'dœgr's' sail; that is to say, the distance which, we may safely conclude, was traversed, under average conditions, in a single 'dœgr' by Icelandic sailing craft. It seems possible to obtain this information with little difficulty. The sailing distance, as given in Landnáma, from Reykianess to Ireland, may best be disregarded because of the confusion in the manuscripts; the sailing distance from Snowfells-ness to Hvarf in Greenland gives