Lastly we may turn to more modern times and still more southerly latitudes, and refer to the ‘hundreds of thousands’ of breeding sea-birds observed on and about Muskegat Island as lately as 1870.[81] This after centuries of indiscriminate plunder by the hand of man may well lead us to accept as practically literal fact the birds’ nests of Straumsey, wherever we may feel disposed to locate this island. In any case it would appear rash to dismiss this detail as a purely northern feature, and still more far-fetched to trace, as Dr. Nansen does, a possible connexion between these eggs and the red and white ‘_scaltae_’ which covered the anchorite’s island in the legend of St. Brendan.[82] Among the remaining descriptions of the fauna of Wineland there does not appear to be much calling for any comment. As to the halibut—or ‘holy fish’—taken in pits dug at the tide-mark, it seems to me most likely that the fish here alluded to was the American plaice or chicken halibut. Of these it is said in Goode’s _American Fishes_ (p. 316): ‘Very shoal water seems to be particularly attractive, and they are often found at the water’s edge, embedded in the sand, with only their eyes in view.’ Cf. the tract _New English Canaan_:[83] ‘There are excellent plaice and easily taken. They (at flowing water) do almost come ashore, so that one may step but half a foot deep, and prick them up on the sands.’ In any case, all Dr. Nansen’s researches have failed to provide him with a mythical source for this feature. We find, in short, wherever we look, in place of the wild absurdities of Irish legend, sober descriptions of places with their fauna and flora which are perfectly natural. What is more important, we do not find in these descriptions the sort of thing likely to occur to an Icelander or Greenlander, who was rationalizing a legend to make it fit the circumstances to which he was accustomed. Apart from the wine and corn, we have a temperate climate with woods and large trees, low shores and sandy beaches; except for the introduction of glaciers into Helluland in the Flatey Book, which may be an embroidery from local sources to emphasize the desolate character of the landscape, we trace a manifest attempt throughout to describe conditions, natural enough to us, but quite unlike anything characteristic of Iceland or Greenland. With regard to the vines in particular, one can see that the nature of these things was imperfectly understood by the saga-writers, so unlike were they to anything with which they were acquainted at home. The most conspicuous example of the description of something utterly foreign to Icelandic conceptions is, however, the account of the ‘Skrælings’ or savages. These, however, are so important an item in the consideration of the question that they must be allotted a chapter to themselves. IV. SKRÆLINGS