The minor point that this theory requires a coasting voyage throughout may now be considered in conjunction with Professor Steensby’s conclusions. I do not lay much stress on the evidence of the old maps, dealt with later on in Chapter IX, though they show that there was always understood to be open sea between the three principal ‘lands’. The Icelandic geography referred to in the same chapter (p. 287) likewise assumes sea at any rate between Markland and Wineland. I would ask the impartial reader to refer to the text, and see whether it conveys to him any idea of a coasting voyage until Keelness is reached, except in one case in Hauk’s version, which is at variance with the purer language of Eric’s Saga. Let him further decide whether, on a dispassionate reading of the evidence, Helluland, Markland, and Wineland can be treated as parts of one and the same unbroken coastline. Professor Steensby (p. 32) argues that the Norsemen habitually coasted on approaching land, saying, moreover, ‘This applies in a quite especial degree when new land was in question.’ I should have thought it more true to say that the Norsemen were the pioneers of open-sea navigation, and the necessity for keeping plenty of sea-room would be particularly cogent in the case of a coast whose dangers were quite unknown. Moreover, according to all accounts, the first discovery was accidental, and open sea might well have been crossed in the endeavour to get back to Greenland, as we are told in the case of Bjarni: if this were so, subsequent expeditions would keep as far as possible to the track of their predecessors up to the point when they arrived at the country (Wineland) which alone was considered desirable to visit and explore. Along the shores of Wineland they would undoubtedly coast, and this is exactly what we are told in the sagas. I will not dwell on the modification of the courses given, as this is not a point upon which much reliance can, in the circumstances, be placed. The statement, however, of the saga, that Helluland lay south of Greenland, is corroborated by the old Icelandic geography (see, _post_ Chapter IX, p. 287), and in any case the ultimate objective lay so far to the south that a ship, limited in storage capacity, would naturally press in that direction as quickly as possible. As I shall have occasion to point out later (Chapter VIII, p. 262), a ship coasting Labrador in the early summer would be liable to be tremendously delayed by ice, of which we find no mention, apart from other considerations, in the report of Karlsefni’s expedition. If the manipulation of the courses stood alone, however, this point would hardly be conclusive.