while elsewhere they were naked. Karlsefni and his companions cast
anchor, and lay there during their absence; and when they came again,
one of them carried a bunch of grapes, and the other an ear of new-sown
wheat. They went on board the ship, whereupon Karlsefni and his
followers held on their way, until they came to where the coast was
indented with bays. They stood into a bay with their ships. There was an
island out at the mouth of the bay, about which there were strong
currents, wherefore they called it Straumey [Stream Isle]. There were so
many birds[33-3] there, that it was scarcely possible to step between
the eggs. They sailed through the firth, and called it Straumfiord
[Streamfirth], and carried their cargoes ashore from the ships, and
established themselves there. They had brought with them all kinds of
live-stock. It was a fine country there. There were mountains
thereabouts. They occupied themselves exclusively with the exploration
of the country. They remained there during the winter, and they had
taken no thought for this during the summer. The fishing began to fail,
and they began to fall short of food. Then Thorhall the Huntsman
disappeared. They had already prayed to God for food, but it did not
come as promptly as their necessities seemed to demand. They searched
for Thorhall for three half-days, and found him on a projecting crag. He
was lying there, and looking up at the sky, with mouth and nostrils
agape, and mumbling something. They asked him why he had gone thither;
he replied, that this did not concern any one. They asked him then to go
home with them, and he did so. Soon after this a whale appeared there,
and they captured it, and flensed it, and no one could tell what manner
of whale it was; and when the cooks had prepared it, they ate of it, and
were all made ill by it. Then Thorhall, approaching them, says: "Did not
the Red-beard[34-1] prove more helpful than your Christ? This is my
reward for the verses which I composed to Thor, the Trustworthy; seldom
has he failed me." When the people heard this, they cast the whale down
into the sea, and made their appeals to God. The weather then improved,
and they could now row out to fish, and thenceforward they had no lack
of provisions, for they could hunt game on the land, gather eggs on the
island, and catch fish from the sea.

_Concerning Karlsefni and Thorhall._--It is said, that Thorhall wished to
sail to the northward beyond Wonder-strands,