The Norsemen went west as well as south, and in the ninth century, they settled in Iceland. Thence they pushed on to Greenland, where they established a colony. Farther west than Greenland it is said that they went, to the continent of America, hundreds of years before Columbus was born. Here is the story as the Sagas, or old Scandinavian tales, tell it. In 985, Bjarni, a merchant and ship-master who was traveling from Iceland to Greenland, was driven out of his course by a storm and foggy weather. “They were borne before the wind for many days, they knew not whither.” When at last calm and sunshine came, they reached a low wooded shore, probably Cape Cod. Leaving this land on the left, Bjarni sailed northward, with a favoring wind. Two days later, he again came near land, low and wooded. This is supposed to have been Nova Scotia. Again Bjarni turned from the coast which he felt sure was not the land that he sought, “because they told me,” he said, “that there are great mountains of ice in Greenland.” Three days later, he reached a rocky, snow-covered shore. He coasted along this till he found that it was an island,--probably Newfoundland,--and then again he turned away. A storm from the south drove him on his course and in four days he reached Greenland. He told the story of his wanderings on the western seas, but he did not attempt to revisit the lands he had found. At last the tale came to the ears of Leif Eriksen, “a man strong and of great stature, of dignified aspect, wise and moderate in all things.” Leif bought Bjarni’s ship and in 999 sailed forth with about twenty-five men to find the new land. He reached the snow-covered island--Newfoundland--which he called Helluland, “land of broad stones,” and he went ashore to see its “frozen heights and bare flat rocks.” Next he visited the “low wooded land of white sandy shore”--Nova Scotia--which he called “Markland, land of woods.” At last he reached the third promontory--Cape Cod,--the first which Bjarni had beheld; there he landed and passed the winter. From the wild grapes, then as now plentiful on the coast of Massachusetts Bay, the Norsemen gave the land the name “Vinland,” land of wine. The next spring they returned to Greenland, rescuing on the way a crew of shipwrecked men. From this time Leif was called “Leif the Lucky.”