Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/188

seven and half-past ten for its rising, and any time between half-past one and half-past four of our time for its setting,'—it would answer all the conditions of the text of the saga, which merely says they had the sun in these watches, not during the whole of these watches; and the precision of ideas and expression which characterises the Icelanders would undoubtedly have expressed, if that had been the meaning, that the sun rose at the beginning of Dagmalastad, and set at the end of Eyktarstad. Torfæus, certainly not inferior in judgment and knowledge to any antiquary of our times, and who, as a contemporary and friend, had on every doubtful point the opinion of Arne Magnaeus, the first Icelandic antiquary who has ever appeared, makes out, from the same text, that the sun may be considered to have been above the horizon from the middle of Dagmalastad to the middle of Eyktarstadt,—that is, for about six hours,—which would correspond to a latitude of 49° instead of 41°; and he, and Arne Magnaeus we may presume with him, bring Vinland to some place in Newfoundland, or in the Saint Lawrence, which certainly would agree better with the description of the people and products, excepting the ready-made wine, the spontaneous wheat, and the fine wood, than Taunton river in Massachusetts. With regard to the Deighton Written Rock, upon which so much has been built in vast and expensive publications, such as the "Antiquitates Americans" (Hafniæ, 1837), and other works, the following observations may lead to a true estimate of its historical value. The rock or stone is a boulder or transported mass, not a stone belonging to the ground rock of the country. It is about 11½ feet long by 5½ feet high, running up to an edge, and the surface, or side on which the Runic inscription is found, sloping at an angle of 60° from its base. It is one of that class of detached masses of primary rock scattered over the