o the southwest, from whence driftwood came to their shores, was a
reasonable, intelligible motive for making a voyage in search of the
lands from whence it came, and where this valuable material could be got
for nothing."[202]

[Footnote 200: See Read's _Historical Inquiry concerning Henry
Hudson_, Albany, 1866, p. 160.]

[Footnote 201: "Nu tekst umraedha at nyju um Vinlandsferdh,
thviat su ferdh thikir baedhi godh til fjar ok virdhingar," i.
e. "Now they began to talk again about a voyage to Vinland, for
the voyage thither was both gainful and honourable." Rafn, p.
65.]

[Footnote 202: _Heimskringla_, i, 168.]

[Sidenote: Ear-marks of truth in the narrative.]

If now we look at the details of the story we shall find many ear-marks
of truth in it. We must not look for absolute accuracy in a narrative
which--as we have it--is not the work of Leif or Thorfinn or any of
their comrades, but of compilers or copyists, honest and careful as it
seems to me, but liable to misplace details and to call by wrong names
things which they had never seen. Starting with these modest
expectations we shall find the points of verisimilitude numerous. To
begin with the least significant, somewhere on our northeastern coast
the voyagers found many foxes.[203] These animals, to be sure, are found
in a great many countries, but the point for us is that in a southerly
and southwesterly course from Cape Farewell these sailors are said to
have found them. If our narrators had been drawing upon their
imaginations or dealing with semi-mythical materials, they would as
likely as not have lugged into the story elephants from Africa or
hippogriffs from Dreamland; mediaeval writers were blissfully ignorant of
all canons of probability in such matters.[204] But our narrators simply
mention an animal which has for ages abounded on our northeastern
coasts. One such instance is enough to suggest that they were following
reports or documents which emanated ultimately from eye-witnesses and
told the plain truth. A dozen such instances, if not neutralized by
counter-instances, are enough to make this view extremely probable; and
then one or two instances which could not have originated in the
imagination of a European writer will suffice to prove it.

[Footnote 203: "Fjoeldi var thar melrakka," i. e. "ibi vulpium
magnus numerus erat," Rafn, p. 138.]

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