HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1927-10-06, Page 3Strange Ruins on Labrador Coast t exploit In finding Wlndand in the.
year 1000. From his .homo in. Greon-1
land he sailed for Norway,'and was !
Morrissey Expedition Examine Relics that May Mark Norse't’ X“o?a to'£
Visits Nearly 500 Years Before Columbus
The Putnam expedition into our American residence was in Winoland.
north country is creating some inter
est in the States. George Palmer Put
nam 'is keeping the American Press
supplied with many columns of in
teresting details of his discoveries
and experiences. Recontly he dealt
with the old ruins on Sculpin Island
as follows:
Newfoundland was the “Markland”
of tho Danish sagas, and Nova Scotia
was possibly*’“Kjalarness.” On the
other hand, "Wineland the Good” may
have been Nova Scotia, perhaps reach
ing far to the south and west. Pos
sibly the students of these problems
never will be entirely agreed. But
for the main premise there is agree
ment and sound evidence. Loif Eric
son and Thorfinn Karlsefni camo to
America fom Greenland 492 years be-
foro Columbus.
Up here midway along tho coast of
Labrador and not far from the settle
ment of Nain, are ancient ruins, pos
sibly of Norse origin. For years they
have been known and periodically in
vestigated. Soon, it is understood,
they are to bo tho subject of thorough
going study and archaelogical re
search, which well may settle their
exact status and possibly fill an allur
ing gap in early American history.
In our own brief visit we could ob
tain at best only a cursory glimpse of
the country. We found the ruins on a
smaller isle to the east of Sculpin Is
land, accessible from it at low water.
Sculpin Island. lies some twenty miles
from Nain, say two-thirds up the coast
of Labrador,
The ruins themselves are on a small
rocky peninsula a few hundred yards
long with an average width of 150
feet. The group contains eleven ma
jor structures about fifty feet from
the water. Close at hand is an excel
lent protected landing place for small
craft, with some indication of an arti
ficial breakwater.
Substantial Ruins.
The maximum height of the walls
Is about three feetmnd the dimensions
of a typical large house are approxi
mately twelve by eighteen feet. Most
of them are oblong in shape. The
main walls apparently averaged about
eighteen inches in thickness and wore
constructed of flat natural stones. Tn
at least one building a dourly defined
doorway remains, with a rectangular
passage beyond it. .Several of these
outside entrance approaches were evi
dent. Except for their rectangular
shape they closely resemble the cold
protecting entrance tunnels of many
modern Eskimo igloos encountered in Greenland and elsewhere. In addition '
there were some round houses, while
adjacent wore remains of characteris
tic Eskimo dwelling .and tent rings,
whero latex* residents evidently had
camped.
P. Hettisch, the Moravian mission
ary at Nain, told us that the Eskimo
name for these ruins signifies
houses built by strange people."
parently the natives
about their origin
enough to
handiwork
sea.
For our
“the
Ap-
know nothing
and are willing
believe that they are the
of visitors from across the
It seoms illogical that these early
mariners should have halted on these
hard shores long enough to require
stone houses, or to lmye completed
and occupied a community of them, as
indicated by the relics.. But again !
one may rejoin that perhaps Winter-1
overtook them, compelling them to ■
camp where they were, Only then,
’ perhaps, they would have gone just a
!bit further, to the mainland, where a
j few hours' sail would have brought
I them to timber and abundant water,
I Al lof this, of course, is purely con
jectural,
TShero are authorities like Babcock
who take a pessimistic view as to the
likelihood of* finding any authentic J Norse relics. They even doubt the ex
istence of any.
“It, seems,” says Babcock, “that so
far as-investigation has gone there is
not a single known'record or relic of
■Wineland, Markland, Helluland or any
Norse or Icelandic voyage of discov
ery extant at this time, which may be
relied on with any confidence.”
And on the other side of the picture
there are those who place consider
able reliance upon the “relics” and
the evidence on record, and who pur
sue further possibilities, such as the
ruins on tho Labrador coast, with
hopeful enthusiasm. But it would be
presumptuous for one who is not a^ student of the. problem to enter into*
the discussion. All that can be said
is that the details have been sifted
and battled over for some decades.
The Norsemen’s Landing.
By and large, it may be well to give
the “ruins”
doubt,
origin,
Norsemen
hereabout,
ary story
story that
recorded.
It begins in Ireland, for Iceland was
originally largely peopled by the Irish.
And in Icoland, before the year 1000,
Eric Raudi, or Eric the Red, appears
to have led a strenuous life. Not him
self a trouble maker, he seems fre
quently to have been in trouble. As a
result of his difficulties he was for a
time practically an outlaw. Later,
helped by friends, he fitted out a ship
and disappeared to tho westward.
Three years later he returned. He
had found Greenland. A considerable
fleet of adventurous pioneers followed
him back to the new country about
the year 985, eleven vessels being lost
in storms on the way. And after that
I Greenland wos Norse for 500 years.
I An epic cf colonization began only to :
end in tragedy, for the colony was mysteriously wiped cut. From, say, |
1450 to 1721, when Hans Egerde
discovered and revived' it for
Danes, Greenland was a lost and
solated land.
Then came Leif. Tradition sets
i
’ Court of King Olaf Tryggvason, was
converted to Christianity and rever
ently assumed the mission of carry
ing his new-found religion back
Greenland. On the return voyage
encountered continental America,
An Indian Reck Carving
Found
What is said to be the largest petro
glyph, or Indian rock -carving, in Can
ada has just been reported to the
■Archaeological office of the National
Museum at Ottawa.
is said to be over 50 feet long and to
bo carved on a vertical face of reddish
rock rising from Fraser River Valley,
The place is only about twelve miles
from Yale, B.C., on the railway line,
and as it is the most available petro
glyph to two transcontinental rail
ways, an effort will be made to have
it set aside as a national monument.
Previously to this discovery tho larg
est known petroglyph in Canada was
on the west side of a seventy-foot can
yon near Bella Coola, about one mile
south of Mackenzie Highway.
This petroglyph
Girls’ Choice is Love or
Learning
London—Love or learning seems to
bo the choice confronting the modern
girl.
; Statistics covering seven years
w^how that only five per cent, of the
girls passing through Oxford Univer
sity have obtained, husbands—though
they do not show how many wanted
them.
Women educators say that men feel
abashed in tho-presence of-tire female
I intellectual giants turned out by Brit-
, ish colleges, and are picking the girls
Ha? Been Perfected
Senator Raul Dandurand
Canada's representative to the League
of Nations.---------------------------------------------
OUTRIVAL , Chiang Will Wed
■KILLFUL FINGERS | MMe. Sun’s Sister
Mechanical Task of Feeding SFcets of Paper to The PressJ^x yivprees Wife Now in
” “ 1 - ’ 1 U.S. nrU AY/ril ML.___
the benefit of a historic
If not themselves of Norse
there is small doubt that i whose thoughts run to the intricacies
made their first landfalls *..................
And what an extraordin
lies in those voyages—a
may never be adequately
of the latest dance.
Gentleman of the World—“A sales
man lias a sweetheart in every town
—a sailor a girl in every port—”
| Collegian—“But only a college man
has a co-ed on every davenport!”
j ----------*----------
Though both training and circum-
re. i stances make it practically impossible
the 1 for. members of the royal family to
de- earn their living, it will be different,
i presumably, with their children.—
hia Hennine, wife of the ex-Kaiser.
records and information
Donald Cadzow of tho Museum of tho
American Indian made a detailed ex
amination of tho entire froup and,
with Professor Gould, the expedition’s
geographer, and his assistants, exe
cuted a survey and map of the ruins
and adjacent terrain, with measure
ments of individual structures. All of
this information is, of course, of po
tential importance for subsequent
comparative study. Without dislo
cating the walls some careful excava
tion work was undertaken in one
building, but nothing was found. In
deed, the only discovery was the re-
•mains of an ancient nail..
Our own group approached Sculpin
island with keen interest, hoping, I
am sure, to secure definite evidence
of an authentic Norse visitation.
The impressions gained tended in
an opposite direction. But our disap
pointment was tompered with the
hope that subsequent discoveries will
upset our pessimistic snap judgment.
. Ruins Not Ancient.
Tho concensus of our opinion Is
that, as reported to The Now York
Times by radio, the general appoar-
ance of the ruins pronounces them to
be of no very great antiquity and ot
no greater historical importance than
would be due to the remains of an
early Eskimo civilization.
Mr. Cadzow, a student of Eskimo
anthropology, attributes the ruins to
the Eskimos. Captain Bartlett, ex
perienced for a generation in things
relating to tho Eskimo, pronounces
them relics of an old-time Eskimo
hunting community, built there be
cause it was a good base for hunting
and fishing. That natives of a later
period also camped there, as pointed
out abovo, coroborates this theory.
But, of course; the Norsemen too, if
they lived there, would select a good
hunting site.
To some of us amateurs the walls
seemed more suited to temporary
hunting quarters than permanent
homes, and considerably less massive
than our understanding of the authen
tic remains of Norse habitations In
Greenland.
“There is no trustworthy record of
any Norse settlement in America ex
isting continuously for moro than one
year, nor of any Norse voyages ex
cepting those of Loif and Thorflnh,
and one other much later,’* Is the judg
ment of Babcock.
The sages tell us that the period of
U.S. and! Will Marry *
Wellesley Graduate,
Miss Meling Soong
Shanghai—The present whereabouts
of General Chiang Kai-shek. who re
signed recently as Commander-in-
Chief -of, the Nanking Nationalist
armies, fp a question that is puzzling
Shanghai these days far more than
the political manoeuvres at Nanking
as reports ot his approaching marriage
are confirmed.
43ome say that the young General
has already gene to Japan, others that
he is till in his native village. But
one thing is certain: he will wed Miss
Moling Soong, a fact wMch has just
leaked out here respite fervid denials
on the part of his friends,
Miss Soong has several claims to
fame. She is'the sister of Mme, Sun
Yat-sen, widow of the founder of tire*
Nationalist movement, and of T, V.
Soong, Finance Minister in the ori
ginal Nationalist Government. She 1»
a graduate of Wellesley College, and
she is probably one of the most beauti
ful young Chinese women in Shanghai
society,
----- - - , - , .i Ruino’rs of this marriage which
could take out the printed sheet with- terIng freely. . Suddenly another pair | have been thick for the past week or
Great Ingenuity has been shown by
rinting industry in devis’ng
Is for feeding single sheets of
into the presses mec'an’cally.
y. tern of feeding from rolls, such
is used in the largo newspaper
presses, is common knowledge to-day,
but in the job printing industry even
that remarkable invention has been
surpassed. Nothing is left for tho
human hand ot do beyond putting a
stack cf paper within reach and keep
ing the parts in -working order.
The distance t'he industry has come
can be seen when one recalls how in
the fifteenth ^century the old German
printer, Gutenberg,
tho Western world
and passes—one could almost say*
hands—them Into the rollers that
guide them down an incline into the
revolving press.
Complicated devices do all the work,
At the two far ends of the pile away
from the rollers are wheel-like arms.
These revolve slowly and as the pile
of paper Is lifted up, they bite in at
the corners and keep a small number
of sheets raised slightly In the air.
Above these are other wheels that
come down on the top of the pile at
intervals and revolve, butting their
humpy surfaces onto the paper to
jiggle it and help separate the sheets,;
Near these is the first pair of magic
frauds, composed of rubber cups, likethe first man in
„„„ ____... ____ to use movable,type, had to lay his parchment sheets j the ones on the toy arrows that used
--- .... .— and press a block i stick cn walls. Operated by com-
j__' j to obtain the im- ■ pressed air, they snap down on the pile
The" work of feeding the' of Pal’er when their turn comes and in
! another moment snap back, holding
the sheet aloft.
Just at the crucial moment in that
process, blasts of compressed air,
blown through cracks in the flattened
! ends of pipes, are shot under the sheet
from several anglesrsetting it to flut-
on the type by hand
on them laboriously
pression. __
presses for ordinary job work, in fact,
seemed to have arrived at a high state
of perfection a generation ago. Presses
in use then opened and closed auto
matically, like the jaws of a frog,
carrying the paper up to the type and
then away again, so that the printer
I 1
I
Books of Witchery For Your
Child |
Uvery child loves to hear stories of
magic and wliitchery. Here is a list,
of the best books of this type, com-I piled by the book editor of “Child! J
Life,” The Children’s Own Magazine: I greater
Black Cats and the Tinker’s Wife, by
Margaret Baker; Boy who Knew What,
the Birds Said, by Padraic Colum;
Donegal Wonder Book, by Seaumas
MacManus; Down-A-Down-Derry, by
Walter de la Mane; Elfin Pedlar and
Tales Told by Pixy Pool, by Helen
Douglas Adam; Moonshine and Clover,
by Laurence Housman; Mystery Tale.s
for Boys and Girls, by Elva S. Smith;
.North Cornwall Fairies and Legends,
b Enys Tregarthe'n; Shen of the Sea
by Arthur B. Chairman; Tale of the
Good Cat Jupie, by Neely McCoy.
Conference of Irish Leaders is
Planned
Cork, Irish Free State.—President
Cosgrave, whose government came
out victorious by a small margin in
the recent general elections, and
, Eamon de Valera, Republican leader,
i who heads the Opposition, have been
invited to attend a conference here to
consider the economic position of the
country and the question of concilia
tion and unity. ' .
The invitation emanates from' J. F.
Daly, chairman oftJj,the Cork Harbor
Board, who at a meeting appealed for
unity by the political parties in the
national interest.
one hand and slide a fresh page in j of rubber-suction hands closes to the }ten days, were confirmed recently by
.... — By means of rubber rollers, snaps down and seizes the persons very close to the Soong
thumbs and fore-1 sheet; the other “hands” let go, and family. But Chiang Kai-shek’s where-with the other. J
grippers on the thumbs and fore-sheet; the other “hands” let go, and
fingers, and after a good deal of prac-; while the air keeps the sheet flutter- abouts remains a mystery. That he is
_ xi. . ____rl >1 ir>v fho aanftnii “banfla’’ nnrnr If- for. i_ 01______. ... . . .lice, the sheets could be shifted in and
out with something approaching me
chanical regularity.
To-day the new devices do that
work far more rapidly dnd with
o____.* accuracy. One automatic
feeder, for example, which was shown
at the recent exhibition of the graphic
arts at the Grand Central Palace, ac
tually lifts single sheets up off a pile
ing, the second “hands” carry it for
ward to the rollers and release it.
Another automatic feeder uses the
older method of taking the sheets off
the pile by a series of wheels. *”'
wheels to-day are so finely adjusted’HVe;eT^thrhou7ein7ke Fi"ench Con-
along the way down the incline that, cession in which T. V. Soong lives.
in Shanghai seems fairly certain, his
tailor, an Englishman, admitting to me *
that Chiang had ordered several suits
and had fittings a few days ago. Then
The • he disappeared, ordering the suits de-
Thomas Hitchcock
Airplane Crashes Pilot
Escapes
Grampian, Pa.—Tho airplane City of
Olympia No. 31, an entry In the air
races at Spokane, Washington, crash
ed to earth in the- Pennsylvania hills
near here. Lieut. Valentine Gep-
hart, of the Marine corp reserve, the
pilot, jumped with a parachute when
the motor went dead 2,0'00 feet in the
air. He made a good landing and was
uninjured.
The Smoke Nuisance
Le Devoir (Ind.): Do people take
seriously this smoke which pervades
the atmosphere, covers everything
with dirt and shuts out the sky? Do
we stop to think how poisonous it is?
Since its supresslon restores health,! -....- ------------
is not this an additional reason for The nian responsible for the Ameri-
ignpring it?can poloignoring it? Because myglene as
seen from the scornful treatment ac- Army in
cc.red those who have the -direction of
the Health Services, is just shelved.
team defeating the British
India team.
A stop
New Welland Nears Completion
.■ipcaapg
dfx>AL' .
x'«<* OT
WWW wio
W > ■■ „
I
fall of 1930 is the latest esti
mate for the opening of the now Wel
land canal. At the present time the
job is 75, per cent, completed. These
Illustrations set out progress of the
• ’ j» iw'ii
LOCK PEPTH NEARLY SAME AS THAT OF HORSESHOE FALLS
work. UPPEh LEFT shows the giant (the lower steel rnitro gates is in tho
control sluice gates leading to waste background as is tile harbor. LOWER
weir alongside lock No. 1, at Port LEFT is another view
Wellor, tho latter lock being illus- tho land around which
trated at the RIGHT. The last leaf of J up. Tho oval depicts
of the" harbor,
has boon built
the leavos of
the lower gatos at Port Weller, simi
lar sets of gates being used on each
lock. Each of the gates weighs 454
tons and Is 82 feet high. It is Impos
sible hero to adequately represent the
gigantic size of these gates, LOWER
U-. . - -<Ck
RIGHT shows an extended view of
locks 5 and 6 with 7 in the back
ground. In tho foreground the height
Is 131 foet, almost the same as those
of parts of tho Horseshoe Falls oh the
Niagara Rlvor.
and it is expected that Chiang Kai-
shek will meet them there within tho
next few d-ays. The date of the wed
ding is uncertain.
It is explained, that Chiang divorced
his first wife several months ago by
the- old Chinese custom of merely pro
claiming that she was no longer hi»
wife. Chiang has denied that the
Mme. Chiang Kai-shek who is now in
America is his wife at all, and it
seems that he has sent away two
other “wives,” as well as his original
wife, and is now ready to marry Miss
Soong.
Their romance began at Canton two
years ago. Miss Soong’s famous sis
ter, Mme. Sun Yat-sen, who is now in
Moscow, is also an American college
.graduate, while their brother,. T. V.
Soong, was a member of the Harvard
class of 1915. The later incidentally,
bitterly opposes the marriage, but de
spite family objections Miss Soong is
resolutely breaking the age-old prece
dent and choosing her own mate.
This affair explains Chiang’s fre
quent visits to the Soong home in re
cent months, which sages averted con
cerned important political alignments,
where as actually the young revolu
tionist was engaged in business of a
far riff-erent character.
A dispatch from Colombo, Ceylon,
recently said that it was reported
there that Chiang Kai-shek had sailed
for America recently.
Free Speech not Desirable
It is commonly assumed that Free
Speech is a generally desired and
much desirable thing. It is nothing
of the sort and never has been. It is
sought by a vastly smaller group than
they who firmly oppose it, and the
great mass doesn’t caro a darn about
it one way or another. Perhaps it is
just as well; the country is better mn
without Free Speech. The working*
man is more comfortable; there is less
dissension. Mouths are filled, ear3
pleased, feet warmed and the enzymes
work busily in the stomach, while ad-
renin can be saved for the pleasures
of the day rather than squandered in
anger from a soap box. Lot anyone
arise and tell me that it is better to be
free to express one’s opinions than ft
Is to eat, love and play and I will arise
and point him out as an invincible
and colossal ass. Liberty or death, in
deed! Life is short enough. Give
those of us who have capacity for hap
piness, enjoyment, contentment the so
blessings, and Liberty may be con
signed to the devil forevermore, Lib-
eryt doesn’t mean either happiness or
enjoyment and this fact is obvious-
from the fact that most exponents of
Liberty have either had hard deaths
or hard living.—Plain Talk.
Will Rogers Studies Effect of a
Man Losing a Million
Beverly Hills, Cal.—Just been over
visiting Charlie Chaplin at his studio,
and watching him work. I wanted to
see how a man acted that had just
^een separated from a million. That
w0uld be the supreme tqst of a com-
ddlati. He is funnipr than ever. Ho
phowed ’ine tho< now picltifi.'. If Uie^
next wife "settles for a cent lefts than
two an da half million, she is a chump. ’
Yours,
WILL ROGERS.
---------———
Aviation in Canada
JJof country provides a bettor field
tor ajr communication than Canada,
Tlie distances between the cities are
K'rcat and the dilmata in favdrablo for
flying. Experience shews that with
suitable equipment, winter presents
nd Insuperable obetaote 4a tho con*
tlnuous operation of air routes*