d, as
Wilson observes, "their nests are crowded so close together
that a person can scarcely walk without treading on them....
The Icelanders have for ages known the value of eider down, and
have done an extensive business in it." See Wilson's _American
Ornithology_, vol. iii. p. 50.]

[Sidenote: Northern limit of the vine.]

From the profusion of grapes--such that the ship's stern boat is said on
one occasion to have been filled with them[209]--we get a clue, though
less decisive than could be wished, to the location of Vinland. The
extreme northern limit of the vine in Canada is 47 deg., the parallel which
cuts across the tops of Prince Edward and Cape Breton islands on the
map.[210] Near this northern limit, however, wild grapes are by no means
plenty; so that the coast upon which Leif wintered must apparently have
been south of Cape Breton. Dr. Storm, who holds that Vinland was on the
southern coast of Nova Scotia, has collected some interesting testimony
as to the growth of wild grapes in that region, but on the whole the
abundance of this fruit seems rather to point to the shores of
Massachusetts Bay.[211]

[Footnote 209:
{"Sva er sagt at eptirbatr theirra var fylldr
af vinberjurn."}
{ So it-is-said that afterboat their was filled
of vine-berries.}
Rafn, p. 36.]

[Footnote 210: Storm, "Studies on the Vinland Voyages,"
_Memoires de la societe royale des antiquaires du Nord_,
Copenhagen, 1888, p. 351. The limit of the vine at this
latitude is some distance inland; near the shore the limit is a
little farther south, and in Newfoundland it does not grow at
all. Id. p. 308.]

[Footnote 211: The attempt of Dr. Kohl (_Maine Hist. Soc._, New
Series, vol. i.) to connect the voyage of Thorfinn with the
coast of Maine seems to be successfully refuted by De Costa,
_Northmen in Maine_, etc., Albany, 1870.]

[Sidenote: Length of the winter day.]

We may now observe that, while it is idle to attempt to determine
accurately the length of the winter day, as given in our chronicles,
nevertheless since that length attracted the attention of the voyagers,
as something remarkable, it may fairly be s