But, more than this, inherent probability is dead against a south-easterly course between Helluland and Markland. The original discoverer, whoever he was, would never have sailed into the open sea south-east from Labrador. If return to Greenland was his object he would turn north-east; if exploration, he would hug the coast. In the latter event he would either sail through the Strait of Belle Isle, which he clearly did not, or, regarding this as a mere inlet or fjord, would treat Newfoundland and Labrador as one country. If Karlsefni was navigating independently of the experience of a predecessor, he would have acted in the same way, and formed the same conclusion. If he were making use of another explorer’s sailing directions, he might, indeed, cut south-east from Labrador to Cape Freels, but he would do so with a knowledge of what lay before him, and would not therefore regard as a separate country what his predecessor had decided to be connected with Helluland. For these reasons I am disposed to reject the identification of Markland with Newfoundland, and to conclude that, whether the spot visited in Helluland lay in Newfoundland or in Labrador, the name must be regarded as including both countries. Still more unsatisfactory is the identification of Nova Scotia with Wineland. Except in the Annapolis basin on the west, which does not suit the requirements of the saga, no wild grapes can be found there. The temperature falls to 20° below zero in winter; frost generally continues from Christmas to April. Moreover, the description of the coast in the sagas, at all events in the neighbourhood of Keelness, the cape at its northern extremity, insists upon long beaches and sands, so remarkable in extent as to give rise to the name Furðustrandir (The Wonderful Beaches). Nova Scotia shows nothing of the kind. This is a circumstance of such importance that I shall return to it hereafter; here it will be sufficient to state that all authorities, ancient and modern, agree in speaking of Nova Scotia as a rocky coast, with numerous indentations. Of the authorities who accept Storm’s views in the main, Mr. Dieserud and Mr. Babcock have realized this difficulty, though Mr. Babcock alone has made a serious attempt to face it. His solution may be left for later consideration; here he shall merely be called as an unwilling witness against Nova Scotia. ‘These people had swift ships. Beaches of ordinary length must also have been familiar to all of them.... They would not marvel at a stretch of fifty miles’. ‘The palpable fact that Nova Scotia does not now supply these wonderstrands ... seems to have compelled Dr. Storm to piece out this part of his theory with minor beaches that the Icelanders would have hardly glanced at as they swept by’. The objection could not be more forcibly stated; there let us leave it for the moment.