mall variation in the flow of ocean
currents might occasion. I am inclined to believe that there may have
been such a change, from the testimony of Ivar Bardsen, steward of the
Gardar bishopric in the latter half of the fourteenth century, or about
halfway between the time of Eric the Red and our own time. According to
Bardsen there had long been a downward drifting of ice from the north
and a consequent accumulation of bergs and floes upon the eastern coast
of Greenland, insomuch that the customary route formerly followed by
ships coming from Iceland was no longer safe, and a more southerly route
had been generally adopted.[196] This slow southward extension of the
polar ice-sheet upon the east of Greenland seems still to be going on at
the present day.[197] It is therefore not at all improbable, but on the
contrary quite probable, that a thousand years ago the mean annual
temperature of the tip end of Greenland, at Cape Farewell, was a few
degrees higher than now.[198] But a slight difference of this sort
might have an important bearing upon the fortunes of a colony planted
there. For example, it would directly affect the extent of the hay crop.
Grass grows very well now in the neighbourhood of Julianeshaab. In
summer it is still a "green land," with good pasturage for cattle, but
there is difficulty in getting hay enough to last through the nine
months of winter. In 1855 "there were in Greenland 30 to 40 head of
horned cattle, about 100 goats, and 20 sheep;" but in the ancient
colony, with a population not exceeding 6,000 persons, "herds of cattle
were kept which even yielded produce for exportation to Europe."[199] So
strong a contrast seems to indicate a much more plentiful grass crop
than to-day, although some hay might perhaps have been imported from
Iceland in exchange for Greenland exports, which were chiefly whale oil,
eider-down, and skins of seals, foxes, and white bears.

[Footnote 195: Some people must have queer notions about the
lapse of past time. I have more than once had this question put
to me in such a way as to show that what the querist really had
in mind was some vague impression of the time when oaks and
chestnuts, vines and magnolias, grew luxuriantly over a great
part of Greenland! But that was in the Miocene period, probably
not less than a million years ago, and has no obvious bearing
upon the deeds of Eric the Red.]