The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-08
ERICKSON SHIP |S PROUDLY SHOWN IN
 CHRIST |AN|A PORT
People Lived Before CheopS And Discovered America 400 Years Before
 Columbus

write or the Alaska or Europe hanging down like bulbous nose over the cold face of the new republic of Finland is a peninsula that corresponds to the territory which Secretary Seward nicknamed , the Ice Box of America" This penin- , Eula includes Norway and Sweden, s and is called Scandinavia. It lies in just about the same latitude as Alaska. If I should take an airplane and fly west round the world at just the same distance from the North Pole as where I am now, l could look down upon Juneau. Stockholm, in Sweden, Is not far above Skagway, while Trondhjem m Norway, a few hundred miles above Kristiania, is almost as far north as Nome. Hammerfast, the city of Europe nearest the Pole, has location cor responding to Point Barrow on our Arctic coas tof Alaska, and Scandi- navia has approximately about as much land north of the Arctic circle as we.
 Our government makes a big noise about its new line from Seward to Fairbanks, as the railway of the North Pole. Scandinavia has a steel road hundreds of miles farther north. Ut crosses the head of this peninsula, tapping great iron mines inside the Arctic circle, and ending at Narvik, q Norwegian port which. although far above Boring Strait. has open l water all the year round. The Swedes are electrifying that line.
 m. Alaska of Europe. 1 P
 This Alaska of Europe is only half tho size of the Alaska of America. Still 1t Is four times as large a. New TnRfand.I It is so long that If 1t were laid upon the United States, 1t would reach from the Gulf, of Mexico nearly ito Canada, and its southern part in hcms places Is as wide as the dis tancs from New York to Pittsburg Sweden alone Is more than four times as big as the state of Ohio, with Massachusetts added thereto, and Norway only a bit smaller than Minnesota and Iowa, taken together. It Is as far from Vardo on the Arctic coast of Norway to Lindesnes on the -ssouth coast as the latter port Is distant from Rome. and the trip around the Norwegian coast takes as long as to cross the Atlantic.
 - This great body of land is & mass of some of the oldest rocks known to man, with patches of earth here and there, and with many lakes and rivers and a vast area of forests The Norwegian part is mostly stony plateau cut by long fjords or arms of the sea, and the Swedish part Is plain sloping down from this plat eau to the gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic. The two countries, includ- ing Denmark. which consists of the islands and patch of land at the foot of the peninsula have about ,eleven million people, the whole mak- ing up what might be called the scandinavians of today.
 A People Who Lived Bs6srs OA<ops
 Compared with Alaska, scandi- navia is thickly populated. It has 10000 people where Alaska has one, and, although 1t is in the same lati- tude, it supports them all and gives them good living. Our Ala&kans belong to one of the youngest races on earth. These European AlAskans have come down from the oldest. Their ancestors were here when Cheops built the Great Pyramid They were alive on this spot in tho Stone Age, and in the Iron Age that followed they sold their wares all over Europe. It was only shortly after Christ came that Scandinavian ships were trading with the Romans and the Caliph of Bagdad They sold amber for bronze at just about the time the Chinese began to make literature. They have figured in his tory since Queen Dido laid out her ancient oity of Carthage, and many
 
 fed by the wolf. had started Rome. They wore old when Soloman built tho temple. and when Confusius first saw the light of the hills of Shan tunE. They cover, in fact, all human history, and there are scientists here who claim that tho Scandinavian race, which pure and undefiled we have with us still, dates back to more than 10000 years before Christ. Some even believe that the Aryan race started here on the shores of the Baltic and that this rather than Asia was the first homo of tho whites.
 A Ship That Beat ooiu-s-..
 At any rate. we have very definite records of what the people have done since the days of the Middle Ages. More than thousand years --ago, the Vikings, by which iS meant Nthe people living in the coves along the coast of Scandinavia, went out in their ships to trade and fight with the other nations of Europe. They sailed as far south as Gibraltar, and their various kings had forced draft for their nAvies which enabled them to hold together and act as one srsrhey were converted to Christianity before the year A. D. 1000 when they had their first Christian king.
 And what Is of more Importance te
  Norwe gian crossed the Atlantic ana : discovered America. beating Colum' bus by about 50 years. The man who made the discovery was a viking named Lief, the son of NorWeslan known as Erik the Red. He crosseI over to Iceland and Greenland, &no from there went down the mainlane n, Auerica and established a settle mAnt which he called Vineland, or the Happy Land. There IS here ID today a ship which Is per hans the exact counterpart of the vessel commanded by Lief. lndeeo it may be the very same ship; TOT |! i. more than eleven hundred years old. It was dug out of the blue cray or the Gogstad farm just 33 years ago. This farm is only four hours Trom where I am writing, and can De easily reached by automobile.
 The ship was brought here rom tts burial place. not far from the sea and If is now installed in shed In ths rear of the university building. IT is of oak, and the hull and Keel are still in good preservation. As l sae if now in my minds eye, can ado n the picture and reproduce 1t as II sailed those stormy seas or the past Rv my American tape measure It IS 1o feet from bow to stern and just It feet wide. In the third plank rom tbe ton there are 16 oarlocks and the rndder was on the right side. There is no anchor shown with the shir hut I venture the one which held II was only a marble in comparison with the mighty mass that hoIqs tlrn the Majestic and upon which l stoot hafore starting for Europe. Yol could put this boat in the ballroom of the Majestic. and a hunderd cou nles or so could still fox-trot rounf 1t Nevertheless it was in such vessel that Lief Erikson crossed th' Atlantic and established the 1lrsl COT onv on the American coast.
 o o o
 Srandinay yfan Americans.