the site of Montreal (45 deg. 30'). A presumption is thus raised in favour
of the opinion that Vinland was not farther north than Massachusetts
Bay.[213]

[Footnote 212:
{"Sjalfsana hveitiakra" }
{ } Rafn, p. 147.
{ Self-sown wheat-acres }]

[Footnote 213: Dr. Storm makes perhaps too much of this
presumption. He treats it as decisive against his own opinion
that Vinland was the southern coast of Nova Scotia, and
accordingly he tries to prove that the self-sown corn was not
maize, but "wild rice" (_Zizania aquatica_). _Memoires_, etc.,
p. 356. But his argument is weakened by excess of ingenuity.]

[Sidenote: Winter weather in Vinland.]

This presumption is supported by what is said about the climate of
Vinland, though it must be borne in mind that general statements about
climate are apt to be very loose and misleading. We are told that it
seemed to Leif's people that cattle would be able to pass the winter out
of doors there, for there was no frost and the grass was not much
withered.[214] On the other hand, Thorfinn's people found the winter
severe, and suffered from cold and hunger.[215] Taken in connection with
each other, these two statements would apply very well to-day to our
variable winters on the coast southward from Cape Ann. The winter of
1889-90 in Cambridge, for example, might very naturally have been
described by visitors from higher latitudes as a winter without frost
and with grass scarcely withered. Indeed, we might have described it so
ourselves. On Narragansett and Buzzard's bays such soft winter weather
is still more common; north of Cape Ann it is much less common. The
severe winter (_magna hiems_) is of course familiar enough anywhere
along the northeastern coast of America.

[Footnote 214: "Thar var sva godhr landskostr at thvi er theim
syndist, at thar mundi eingi fenadhr fodhr thurfa a vetrum;
thar kvomu eingi frost a vetrum, ok litt renudhu thar groes," i.
e. "tanta autem erat terrae bonitas, ut inde intelligere esset,
pecora hieme pabulo non indigere posse, nullis incidentibus
algoribus hiemalibus, et graminibus parum flaccescentibus."
Rafn, p. 32.]

[Footnote 215: "Thar voru their um vetrinn; ok gjoerdhist vetr
mikill, en ekki fyri unnit ok gjoerdhist illt til matarins, ok