They found there wild (lit: self-sown) fields of wheat wherever the ground was low, but vines wherever they explored the hills. Every brook was full of fish. They made pits where the land met high-water mark, and when the tide ebbed there were halibut in the pits. There was a great quantity of animals of all sorts in the woods. They were there a fortnight, enjoying themselves, without noticing anything further: they had their cattle with them. And one morning early, as they looked about them, they saw nine skin canoes, on which staves were waved with a noise just like threshing, and they were waved with the sun. Then Karlsefni said, ‘What is the meaning of this?’ Snorri answered him, ‘Perhaps this is a sign of peace, so let us take a white shield and lift it in answer,’ and they did so. Then these men rowed to meet them, and, astonished at what they saw, they landed. They were _swarthy_[41] men and ugly, with unkempt hair on their heads. They had large eyes and broad cheeks. They stayed there some time, showing surprise. Then they rowed away south past the cape. Karlsefni and his men had made their camp above the lake, and some of the huts were near the mainland while others were near the lake. So they remained there that winter; no snow fell, and their cattle remained in the open, finding their own pasture. But at the beginning of spring they saw one morning early a fleet of skin canoes rowing from the south past the cape, so many that the sea was black with them,[42] and on each boat there were staves waved. Karlsefni and his men raised their shields, and they began to trade: the (strange) people wanted particularly to buy red cloth, _in exchange for which they offered skins and grey furs_. They wished also to buy swords and spears, but Karlsefni and Snorri forbade this. _The savages got for a dark skin a spans length of red cloth, which they bound round their heads._[43] Thus things continued for awhile, but when the cloth began to give out they cut it into pieces so small that they were not more than a finger’s breadth. The savages gave as much for it as before, or more.