While Erik was concealed from his enemies who were seeking for him, a ship was equipped by his friends, for he had resolved to go in search of land which Gunnbjörn, son of Ulf the Crow, reported that he had seen. Erik, with his family and people, sailed out to sea from Sneefells Jokul, and the famous voyage began, in the year 983. Sailing westward, the adventurers rounded Hoitserkr, as they called Cape Farewell, and the south-west coast of Greenland was discovered, known afterwards as the East Bygd. The wanderers found that they had reached a land with a climate like that of Iceland. The great ice current, flowing down the east coast of Greenland and diverted by the Gulf Stream, sweeps round Cape Farewell and is closely packed along this shore until late in the season. Almost the whole coast, with numerous islands and entrances to the deep fjords, may be taken in at a glance from Cape Farewell, or at least from Cape Christian to Cape Desolation. It comprises the whole of the ancient colony of the East Bygd. Great precipices face the sea, with black mountains, 3000 to 4000 ft. high, rising above them. Here and there, between them, a glimpse is caught of the glistening inland ice. Between the rocks and precipices the openings to the six deep fjords can be made out, which penetrate from 30 to 40 miles inland. The fjords, when frozen over in the winter, are colder than the sea coast, but they are warmer in summer, and there is then a rich vegetation. Groves of willows 8 feet high and of birch trees 14 feet high, rising out of thick beds of juniper, angelica, alchemilla, and several berries well known to the Norsemen, give beauty to the shores of the inner creeks. Nor is suitable pasture wanting for cattle and sheep. It might well receive the name of Greenland, as Erik saw it and named it, in the height of summer. Erik wintered on an island called by his name, and devoted the next summer season to exploration. Thus they passed three winters, with the intervening exploring seasons. Finally he selected a place far up the Einarsfjord (_Igalliko_) for his homestead. It was named Brattahlid because it was under a steep hill side.