upposed to indicate a
latitude lower than they were accustomed to reach in their trading
voyages in Europe. Such a latitude as that of Dublin, which lies
opposite Labrador, would have presented no novelty to them, for voyages
of Icelanders to their kinsmen in Dublin, and in Rouen as well, were
common enough. Halifax lies about opposite Bordeaux, and Boston a little
south of opposite Cape Finisterre, in Spain, so that either of these
latitudes would satisfy the conditions of the case; either would show a
longer winter day than Rouen, which was about the southern limit of
ordinary trading voyages from Iceland. At all events, the length of day
indicates for Vinland a latitude south of Cape Breton.

[Sidenote: Indian corn.]

The next point to be observed is the mention of "self-sown
wheat-fields."[212] This is not only an important ear-mark of truth in
the narrative, but it helps us somewhat further in determining the
position of Vinland. The "self-sown" cereal, which these Icelanders
called "wheat," was in all probability what the English settlers six
hundred years afterward called "corn," in each case applying to a new
and nameless thing the most serviceable name at hand. In England "corn"
means either wheat, barley, rye, and oats collectively, or more
specifically wheat; in Scotland it generally means oats; in America it
means maize, the "Indian corn," the cereal peculiar to the western
hemisphere. The beautiful waving plant, with its exquisitely tasselled
ears, which was one of the first things to attract Champlain's
attention, could not have escaped the notice of such keen observers as
we are beginning to find Leif and Thorfinn to have been. A cereal like
this, requiring so little cultivation that without much latitude of
speech it might be described as growing wild, would be interesting to
Europeans visiting the American coast; but it would hardly occur to
European fancy to invent such a thing. The mention of it is therefore a
very significant ear-mark of the truth of the narrative. As regards the
position of Vinland, the presence of maize seems to indicate a somewhat
lower latitude than Nova Scotia. Maize requires intensely hot summers,
and even under the most careful European cultivation does not flourish
north of the Alps. In the sixteenth century its northern-most limit on
the American coast seems to have been at the mouth of the Kennebec
(44 deg.), though farther inland it was found by Cartier at Hochelaga, on