Show HO HOW GREENLAND WAS NAMED I Editor noticed In intile tile tho SemiWeekly New of oC the tho nn an editorial headed Changes of Climate wherein I find the follow log For many years It was that the cast coast ot of Greenland had formerly enjoyed a mild climate which favored the growth Of vegetation vegetation tion and gave rise to the tho name namo of Greenland Green land landI I have met men who have mado that n assertIon n to mo me and I that such theol theory has been and 1 is yet ot wl lu spread To 10 show that It Is erroneous I send you OU a translation or of a part of the first chapter of the th LUc Life ot of the Red the father or of Leif ErIkson who landed on the American conti continent continent nent In the tho fall of oC A D 1000 This Life Lito o of Erik Brill the Red nod Is from an Icelandic vellum not nt later lator than early In the thirteenth century It Is now In the Ro l Library Coven Denmark It I is n a book about which President charles W W P In a letter to me mc dated Liverpool England Aug AU 23 1909 says There Thare I saw those old and i able documents written wIth pen and I Ink Ion long before printing wo was In vogue ogue but In beautiful characters finer than common prInt One of them which partIcularly interested me es the tru truths h or of the claim that long be before before fore Columbus made mado his great lis coer covery The quotation from ho Life Lite ol of Erik the Red be beyond on doubt that the tho east coast or Greenland so tar hack back as Is known never was inhabit inhabitable able the n reaching clear do down downto n nto to sea sen Glacier Is In the Icelandic language and In referring to those as topographical names to show the whereabouts of such localities I shall use uso the tho original j has In the Icelandic the same sound as y In English This Is the tho quotation referred to Erik was convicted In the district court and exIled from Crom the country for or the tho term of three years He then than fitted out n a vessel of his own and set to sea ea When hen Erik started his friend and attorney together with other intimate friends follow tollow cd him till he WM was on the open sea and ho he told thorn thom that lie he was going to seek seck the tho land which the son toon ot of Kraka hud had seen seon an and called Island when ho ha drifted west from the tho coast or of Iceland anti and that In case enso ho round found the tho land ho I would return and tell Ills his frIends thereof He then took his course courso west from After three days sailing salling ho saw land In n a westerly direction and came under land which ho called but which Iii is now called Seeing that the land lanel was not habitable lie he sailed from there thero In Ina ina a southerly direction keeping the coast In sight so as to see whether ho would not a place that was fit for habitation The first winter ho hoI spent In the Isle which Is near I tho middle or of the tho Eastern colony colon In Inthe Inthe the spring ho he set to sea agaIn going further south and amI west along the coast Sailing In Eriks Firth ho lan land landed ed there thore made tl a location calling his new homo home And after ex cx exploring distance along the tho coast and giving names to places he In the fall returned to and ami dwelt there during tho wInter The Tho I third summer ho went back to Iceland and took harbor In Ho called the cOuntry he had found Greenland saying that It Would bo be ass an Inducement for the tho people to emi emigrate grate to there If the tho country had a good name Erik that winter In Iceland but the next sprIng CA A D B wont went to settle Greenland It Is related b by viso men that Clint no less than 35 vessels manned with colonizers left leCt the west or of Iceland for tor Greenland the same summer as Erik the tho Red went vent back to seUlo there but that fourteen only onh reached d destina Some drifted back baek to Iceland and several were never heard from This was 16 15 years before was adopted as national faIth In Iceland JOHN |