It was during the reign of the earls that the North American continent was first visited by the Norsemen. An Icelander named Bjarne Herjulfsson, during a voyage to Greenland (986), was blown out of his course, and discovered, while sailing northward, an unknown land on his left. He concluded that it could not be Greenland, as there were no glaciers, but only low, wooded heights sloping gently toward the ocean. On his arrival in Greenland, Bjarne told of the new country he had seen, but was much ridiculed because he had not gone ashore and explored it. His story made a great impression, however, upon the adventurous Leif, son of Erik the Red. He bought Bjarne's ship, and, with a crew of thirty-five men, set sail for the unknown shore in the West (1000). The first land he saw was on his right as he sailed southward. It was full of glaciers and had no grass. He called it Helluland, because it seemed, at the foot of the glaciers, to be one flat expanse.[A] This must have been the present Labrador. Continuing his southward course, Leif came to a country which was well wooded, and had long, smooth beaches. He called it Markland (Woodland), and the supposition is that it was Nova Scotia. With a stiff northeaster, he made considerable headway, and came, after another day's voyage, to an island where a river flowed into the sea. As it was ebb-tide he could not land, but so eager were the men to explore the country, that they jumped overboard and waded ashore. The statement that the sun rose in this region, on the shortest day of the year, at half-past seven and set at half-past four, indicates a latitude of 41° 24' 10"; Leif, accordingly, must have landed somewhere in the neighborhood of Cape Cod or Fall River, Mass. He found the country possessed of many advantages. It was so mild in the winter that cattle would require no stable-feeding. The rivers abounded in salmon and the woods in game. A German, named Tyrker, became so enthusiastic over the discovery of grapes, that he relapsed into his native tongue, and was supposed, by the crew to be intoxicated. Leif and his men put up some booths and spent the winter in the new land, which they called Vinland, but set sail the following spring for Greenland. [Footnote A: _Helle_, in Norwegian, means a great flat stone.] It is evident from the description here given that there is either some mistake in regard to the latitude, or the climate of New England must have grown severer during the last nine centuries. Cattle could scarcely be left in the open air in the Cape Cod region nowadays. Nor do grapes of any choice variety grow wild in the chill blasts which now gambol about the Massachusetts coast; and the tart fox grape, it seems, could scarcely rouse enthusiasm even in the breast of a German.