The Discovery of America by the Northmen, in the Tenth Century, with Notices of the Early Settlements of the Irish in the Western Hemisphere ...

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T. & W. Boone, 1841 - 239 pages

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Page 55 - With all the visionary fervor of his imagination, its fondest dreams fell short of the reality. He died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his discovery. Until his last breath he entertained the idea that he had merely opened a new way to the old resorts of opulent commerce, and had discovered some of the wild regions of the east. He supposed Hispaniola to be the ancient Ophir which had been visited by the ships of Solomon, and that Cuba and Terra Firma were but remote parts of Asia.
Page 64 - After this took they counsel, and formed the resolution of remaining there for the winter, and built there large houses. There was no want of salmon either in the river or in the lake, and larger salmon than they had before seen. The nature of the country was, as they thought, so good that cattle would not require house feeding in winter, for there came no frost in winter, and little did the grass wither there.
Page 50 - Hebrides, who made a hymn respecting the whirlpool, in which was the following verse: " O Thou who triest holy men ! Now guide me on my way ; Lord of the earth's wide vault, extend Thy gracious hand to me.
Page 61 - Voyage of His Majesty's Ship Rosamond to Newfoundland and the Southern Coast of Labrador.
Page 90 - ... these went on board the ship, and after that sailed they farther. They sailed into a frith; there lay an island before it, round which there were strong currents, therefore called they it Stream island. There were so many eider ducks on the island that one could scarcely walk in consequence of the eggs. They called the place Stream-frith.
Page 104 - Then went Bjarni up into the ship, but this man down into the boat, and after that continued they their voyage until they came to Dublin, in Ireland, and told there these things. But it is most people's belief that Bjarni and his companions were lost in the worm-sea, for nothing was heard of them since that time.
Page 51 - Bjarni came to Eyrar with his ship the summer of the same year in which his father had sailed away in spring. These tidings appeared serious to Bjarni, and he was unwilling to unload his ship. Then his seamen asked him what he would do; he answered that he intended to continue his custom, and pass the winter with his father : " And I will," said he, " bear for Greenland, if ye will give me your company.
Page 103 - They said that no houses were there ; people lay in caves or in holes. They said there was a land on the other side, just opposite their country, where people lived who wore white clothes, and carried poles before them, and to these were fastened flags, and they shouted loud...
Page 136 - It is very difficult to ascertain the precise condition of the weather in distant ages. The thermometer was not invented till 1590, by the celebrated Sanctorio ; nor was that valuable instrument reduced to a correct standard before the year 1724, by the skill of Fahrenheit. We have hence no observations of temperature which go farther back than a century.
Page 49 - Erik was declared an outlaw. He went to sea, and discovered Greenland, which he thus called because, he said, " people will be attracted thither if the land has a good name." There he took up his abode, leading a colony with him, about AD 986, fifteen years before Christianity was established by law in Iceland. The colony prospered, and there is...

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