and at last reached the place where his father was. This first voyage to the Western Continent, as recorded in Icelandic runes, occurred in the year 986.
Leif, not so uncurious as Bjarni, inherited the vigour of his father, Red Erik. The reports of the new lands so casually come upon, impelled him to buy the ship of his friend and to set forth with thirty-five comrades just eight years after Bjarni's return. They "sailed out into the sea . . . and found that land first which Bjarni had found last." They saw icebergs and a sloping plain strewn with flat stones from, sea to mountains. So they called it the land of Hella—"a flat stone." This was the first name given to what was without doubt the shore of Labrador and Newfoundland.
Leif, son of Erik, disembarked, and set foot on the new continent; then he sailed again and came to more land, cast anchor, put off boats and went ashore. Here, the surrounding country was level, and covered with wood and white sands. Then said Leif, according to a troubadour's tale inscribed in the thirteenth century, "This land shall be named after its qualities and called Markland." This is presumed to have been the coast of Nova Scotia.
When Leif renewed his voyage, winter was approaching. There are reasons to believe that he and his crew passed Nantucket Island and went into camp near the Pocasset River, in Massachu-
