[115] This passage was misunderstood by Torfæus, the earliest writer who inquired into these questions, and he was followed by Peringskiold, Malte-Brun and others, who, by their reckoning, made the latitude of Vinland somewhere near Nova Scotia. Yet the recent studies of Rafn and Finn Magnussen, have elucidated the point: "The Northmen divided the heavens or horizons, into eight principal divisions, and the times of the day according to the sun's apparent motion through these divisions, the passage through each of which they supposed to occupy a period of three hours. The day was therefore divided into portions of time corresponding with these eight divisions, each of which was called an _eykt_, signifying an eighth part. This _eykt_ was again divided, like each of the grand divisions of the heavens, into two smaller and equal portions, called _stund_ or _mal_. In order to determine these divisions of time, the inhabitant of each place carefully observed the diurnal course of the sun, and noted the terrestrial objects over which it seemed to stand. Such an object, whether artificial or natural, was called by the Icelanders, _dagsmark_ (daymark). They were also led to make these daymarks by a division of the horizon according to the principal winds, as well as by the wants of their domestic economy. The shepherd's rising time, for instance, was called _Hirdis rismál_, which corresponds with half-past four o'clock A. M., and this was the beginning of the natural day of twenty-four hours. Reckoning from _Hirdis rismál_ the eight _stund_ or eighth half _eykt_ ended at just half-past four P. M.; and therefore this particular period was called [Greek: kat' exochên], EYKT. This _eykt_, strictly speaking, commenced at three o'clock P. M., and ended at half-past four P. M., when it was said to be in _eyktarstadr_ or the termination of the _eykt_. The precise moment that the sun appeared in this place indicated the termination of the artificial day (_dagr_), and half the natural day (_dagr_), and was therefore held especially deserving of notice: the hours of labor, also, are supposed to have ended at this time. Six o'clock A. M. was called _midr morgun_; half-past seven A. M., _Dagmal_; nine A. M., _Dagverdarmal_. Winter was considered to commence in Iceland about the seventeenth of October, and Bishop Thorlacius, the calculator of the astronomical calendar, fixes sun-rise in the south of Iceland, on the seventeenth of October, at half past seven A. M. At this hour, according to the Saga, it rose in Vinland on the shortest day, and set at half-past four P. M., which data fix the latitude of the place at 41° 43´ 10´´, being nearly that of Mount Hope Bay." See _Mem. Antiq. du Nord_, 1836-7, p. 165. Rafn's calculation makes the position 41° 24´ 10´´. It is based on the view that the observation was made in Vinland when only the upper portion of the disc had appeared above the horizon. The difference, of course, is not important. Thus we know the position