104 GREENLAND OR GREEN ISLAND obliterated, as is supposed, by the Eskimos. The main settlement was still more enduring, having a continuous record of nearly half a millennium, a history not surpassed in duration by some far more populous and powerful nations. This seems marvelous, if it be true that the entire population never exceeded 2,000 souls, as Nansen and Hovgaard have FIG. 16 Section of the Clavus map of 1427 showing Greenland continuous with Europe. (After Joseph Fischer's hand-copied reproduction.) supposed. Rink, on the other hand, estimated the maximum at io,ooo. 16 Some intermediate number would seem more likely than either extreme, if we may hazard a conjecture where doctors disagree. The prosperity of the colony, such as it was, seems to have been at its best in the eleventh and twelfth cen- turies but was never conspicuous enough to get an outline of Greenland into the maps until about the time of final extinction. " Op. cil., p. 27.
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