chief died, they chose his largest
canoe. On it they piled dry wood, and on the wood they placed the body.
Then they set fire to the pile and sent the blazing boat out to sea.
Perhaps in earlier times the Micmacs once watched the flaming funeral
pyre of a fair-haired viking. As the ruddy flames leaped skyward and
were reflected in the shimmering waves of the great waters the tribesmen
must have felt that the Great Spirit would gladly welcome a chief who
came in such a blaze of glory. *

* For this information I am indebted to Mr. Stansbury Hagar.

It seems strange that almost no other traces of the strong vikings
are found in America. The explanation lies partly in the length and
difficulty of the ocean voyage, and partly in the inhospitable character
of the two great islands that served as stepping-stones from the Old
World to the New. Iceland with its glaciers, storms, and long dreary
winters is bad enough. Greenland is worse. Merely the tip of that
island was known to the Norse--and small wonder, for then as now most
of Greenland was shrouded in ice. Various Scandinavian authors, however,
have thought that during the most prosperous days of the vikings the
conditions in Greenland were not quite so bad as at the present day. One
settlement, Osterbyden, numbered 190 farms, 12 churches, 2 monasteries,
and 1 bishopric. It is even stated that apple-trees bore fruit and that
some wheat was raised. "Cattle-raising and fishing," says Pettersson,
"appear to have procured a good living.... At present the whole stock of
cattle in Greenland does not amount to 100 animals." * In those days the
ice which borders all the east coast and much of the west seems to have
been less troublesome than now. In the earliest accounts nothing is said
of this ice as a danger to navigation. We are told that the best sailing
route was through the strait north of Cape Farewell Island, where today
no ships can pass because of the ice. Since the days of the Norsemen the
glaciers have increased in size, for the natives say that certain ruins
are now buried beneath the ice, while elsewhere ruins can be seen which
have been cut off from the rest of the country by advancing glacial
tongues.

* O. Pettersson, "Climatic Variations in Historic and Prehistoric
Times." Svenska Hydrogrifisk--Biologiska Kommissioneur Skrifter, Haft V.
Stockholm.

Why the Norsemen disappeared from the Western Hemisphere we do not
exactly know, but there are i