But the adventurous Norsemen who first reached Greenland from Iceland attempted to push their investigations farther to the south-west, in the hope of discovering more habitable lands; and in this way it was supposed that their voyages extended as far as Massachusetts and Rhode Island, but in all probability they reached no farther than Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.  This portion of North America they called “Vinland”, more from the abundance of cranberries (vinbaer) on the open spaces than the few vines to be found in the woods of Nova Scotia.[3]

[Footnote 3:  The grapes and vines so often alluded to by the early explorers of North America ripened, according to the species, between August and October.  They belong to the same genus—­Vitis—­as that of the grape vines of the Old World, but they were quite distinct in species.  Nowadays they are known as the Fox Grapes (Vitis vulpina), the Frost Grape (V. cordifolia), the V. aestivalis, the V. labruska, &c.  The fruit of the Fox Grape is dark purple, with a very dusky skin and a musky flavour.  The Frost Grape has a very small berry, which is black or leaden-blue when covered with bloom.  It is very acid to the taste, but from all these grapes it is easy to make a delicious, refreshing drink.  Champlain, however, says that the wild grapes were often quite large in size, and his men found them delicious to eat.]

This brings us down to the year 1008.  The Icelandic Norsemen then ceased their investigations of the North-American Continent, and were too ignorant to realize the value of their discoveries.  Their colonies on the coasts of Nova Scotia ("Vinland”) and Newfoundland ("Estotiland”) were attacked probably by Eskimos, at any rate by a short, thick-set, yellow-skinned ugly people whom the Norsemen called “Skraeling",[4] who overcame the unfortunate settlers, murdered some, and carried off others into the interior.

[Footnote 4:  Perhaps from the Eastern Eskimo national name Karalit.]

But about this period, when Europe was going through that dismal era, the Dark Age which followed the downfall of the Roman Empire of the west, various impulses were already directing the attention of European adventurers to the Western Ocean, the Atlantic.  One cause was the increased hold of Roman and Greek Christianity over the peoples of Europe.  These Churches imposed fasts either for single days or for continuous periods.  When people fasted it meant that they were chiefly denied any form of meat, and therefore must eat fish if they were not content with oil, bread, or vegetables.  So that there was an enormous and increasing demand for fish, not only amongst those fortunate people who lived by the seashore, and could get it fresh whenever they liked, but among those who lived at a distance inland, and were still required to fast when the Church so directed.  Of course in many parts of Europe they could get freshwater fish from the rivers or lakes.