THE ESKIMOS m . . . they sailed out from Krogfiordsheath, until they lost sight of the land. Then they had a south wind against them and darkness, and they had to let the ship go before the wind; but when the storm ceased and it cleared up again, they saw many islands and all kinds of game, both seals and whales and a great number of bears. They came right into the sea-bay and lost sight of all the land, both the southern coast and the glaciers; but south of them were also glaciers as far as they could see. That was their farthest point. They then sailed southward, reaching Krogfiordsheath again and eventually Gardar. On the way they had noticed some abandoned Eskimo houses but no living Eskimos. There is some attempt to indicate latitude by the way shadows fell in a boat. Also we are told, apparently meaning midsummer or a little later: "at midnight the sun was as high as at home in the settlement when it is in northwest." But speculations as to their course and distance have given varying results. Some think they may even have passed into Smith Sound; others that they may have crossed the Middle Water to the western shore of Baffin Bay, seeing south of them the glaciers of northeastern Baffin Land; others still that they did not get very far above Upernivik; but, whatever the exact limit, it seems to have been a notable bit of Arctic exploration, prosecuted rather at random and with scant resources. THE ESKIMOS The Eskimos (Skraelings) are referred to in this account as if already known to the settlers, though uncertain as to their home quarters and mysterious in their coming and going. Prob- ably there had been some contact, not wholly friendly, between outranging members of the two races. The Historia Norvegiae, 23 a manuscript of the same century discovered in Scotland, says: Beyond the Greenlanders toward the north their hunters came across a kind of small people called Skraelings. When they are wounded alive their wound becomes white without issue of blood; but the blood scarcely ceases to stream out of them when they are dead. 23 Pp. 69-124 in Gustav Storm: Monumenta historica Norvegiae, Christiania, 1880; reference on p. 76. In English, e. g. in Hovgaard, p. 167.
