The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-11-29

OvergrOwn with dwarf-willows and
scurvy- grass, large churches and pOr-
tiOns of graveyards have been found
in the situations mentioned in the
ancient Icelandic records. IL one plain
once q meadow, but now oyer-grown
with dandelions and Juniper brush,
parts of church bells, were picked up
by the natives and boarded as speci-
mems of gold. Runic inscriptions have
been found as far north as the Woman
Island, In lat. ~ deg. 55 sec. and the
most recent expeditions have confirm
ed the existence of ell natural land
marks mentioned by the chroniclers.
Their "veins of gold" are shown to be
deposits of iron pyrites; the warm
winds in winter, which seemed 50
marvellous to the ancient colonists,
have been described by Sir l.. M'Clin-
took and the hot springs of Onagtok
confirm the old NOrseman's account
of the boiling fountains of which the
the monks in Greenland cooked their
food. Greenland was cOlonized at the
end of the tenth century, and the
settlement prospered for four hundred
years. After the devatatiOns of the
black death the settlers had to recede
before the advance of the EsquimauX,
or "Skr9lings," and valuable ac-
count of the state of the country Just
before the time when intercourse with
Europe ceased, is to be found in
Purchas' "Pilgrims. Ivor Bardson,
high steward TO the Bishop, was sent
to- the northern partsrof the colony to
drive back the Esquimaux.
There" he wrote, is still standing
a church where formerly our bishop
dwelt; but now the wild Skr9ings
have all that land and there are many
cattle, but no people, Christian or
heathen; but all have been carried off
by the enemy, the Skrelings; Thai
is the last that was heard of the DOOM
ed colony and no one knows the fate
of the last handful of settlers. Danish
writers have been fond of imagining
the migratiOns of their countrymen to
the ice-bound recesses of the east coast
Greenland, where they are supposed
to remain, carrying on a perpetual
war with the savages in revenge for
the ruin of their ancestors" But this
is mere fancy which has been gradu-
ally disprOyed; and, except-in the
books of the antiquarians, and the
vague rumOrs of the seas, the memory
of Greenland has long since passed
away. -., rr..,---...r
To the first settlers of Greenland is
ascribed the honor of having colonized
the American Continent. Their adj
ventures are detailed in eight long
chapters of an old Icelandic sage, and
have formed the subject of many learned
books in modern times, of which, the
most remarkable is the " Antiquities
American3"-A sumptuous folio pub
lished by Professor Rain for the
Society of Northern antiquaries. The
story may be shortly summerizeds In
the voyage to Greenland ships crew
had noticed land to the southwest,
which some of the colonists de.
termined to explore. Starting from
Baffin's Bay, they came to an island
bare of all vegetation; land there
were great snow mountains up the
country; but all between them and
the shore was flat field of snow, and
it seemed a worthless place." This
they name Helluland, or Flat COun-
try; and little interest would ever
have been excited by the discovery, if
the modern savans had not chosen to
include in its bOuraries all that is now
Labrador and Newfoundland; and this
seems the more absurd when we con-
slider that the Labrador coast includes
the grassy slopes of Hami lton Inlet,
and the Iarch-covered hills Of Sandwich
Bay, which bloom like garden in the
summer months.