Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/163

 less enduring and hardy, than in those old times of the Northmen? or is the land, the sea, the climate less adapted now for the subsistence of the human animal?

The opinion of almost all antiquaries was, that the main settlement of the old colonists,—the Eystribygd, with its 190 townships, its town of Garda, its cathedral, bishop's seat, and twelve or thirteen churches,—was on the east coast of Greenland, somewhere on the coast north of Cape Farewell, inaccessible now from ice; and the less important Yestribygd to have been west of Cape Farewell, within Davis's Straits. Others supposed that both settlements were on the east coast of Greenland, and that the old colonists did not know that Greenland had a west coast from Cape Farewell. The opinions were founded on certain ancient sailing directions found in the sagas, especially in a saga of King Olaf Tryggvesson, in which it is mentioned that from Stad, the westermost part of Norway, it is a voyage of seven days' sailing due west to Hornpoint, the eastermost part of Iceland; and that from Sneefieldness, the point of Iceland nearest to Greenland, it is a voyage of four days' sailing, also due west, to Greenland: and a rock called Gunbiornskerry is stated to be half-way between Iceland and Greenland; but this course, says one of the ancient accounts of unknown date, but certainly of the 14th century, "was the old way of sailing; but now the ice from the northern gulf has set down so near to this skerry, that nobody can take this course without danger of life." This rock, skerry, or isle, midway between the coast of Iceland and that of Greenland, is proved by Scoresby and other navigators to have no existence; and the east coast of Greenland, as far as it has been possible to explore it, is found to be more inclement, icebound, and in every way less adapted naturally to afford subsistence to man, than the west coast within