| Summary: | Norse Discovery Theory. : McGill Historian Holds Heruifson Reached Continent In 986. NORSE DISCOVERY THEORY McGill Historian Holds Herulfson Reached Continent in 986. OTTAWA (Canadian Press) .— Theory that an ancient Norse explorer reached the Gulf of the St. Lawrence and saw Prince Edward Island more than 500 years before Columbus landed far to the South is contained in a paper read before the historical section of the Royal Society of Canada by Colonel Wilfrid Bovey of McGill University, Montreal. Colonel Bovey, recapitulating evidence of Norse discovery contained in ancient accounts, including the saga of Eric the Red, in the light of new evidence concluded that Barne Herulfson sailed from Iceland about 986 and was driven far south by the wind, missing Newfoundland and entering the Gulf of the St. Lawrence through Cabot Strait. After reaching Prince Edward Island, of which he did not land, Colonel Bovey suggested, Herulfson sailed north through the Straits of Belle Isle and landed at the southern tip of Greenland. He suggested also that evidence of old records indicated Lief Ericson, son of Eric the Red, voyaged up the St. Lawrence a considerable distance about the year 1000 and that the country he named Vinland was in that territory at a point impossible to fix at this date.
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