THE 
 
 Track of the NorseiTian 
 
 A MONOGRAPH 
 
 BY 
 
 jo^. ^^of^Y mr. 
 
 OF 
 
 Wood's Hon 
 
 MASS. 
 
 ■-o-^=t£g<M-f-o-- 
 
 BOSTON : 
 C. C. ROBERTS, PRINTER, 21 BRATTLE STREET, 
 
 1876. 
 

 ^ 
 
 
 THE 
 
 Track of the Norseman, 
 
 It is now well established that in the tenth century 
 the Norsemen visited this countr}^, and coasting down 
 from Greenland, passed along Cape Cod, through Vine- 
 yard Sound to Narragansett Bay, where it is believed 
 they settled. In the neighborhood of Assonet and Digh- 
 ton, inscriptions upon the rocks have been found and 
 traditions exist that there were others which have' been 
 destroyed. The name of Mount Hope is supposed to 
 have been given to the Indians by them, and it is a 
 little curious that those antiquaries who have tried to 
 identify the names in Narragansett Bay with the Norse- 
 men did not look elsewhere on their route. 
 
 The Rev. Isaac Taylor, the author of a work pub- 
 lished by Macmillan & Co. of London, entitled "Words 
 and Places," dilates upon the tenacity with which the 
 names of places adhere to them, "throwing light upon 
 history when other records are in doubt." He shows 
 the progress and extent of the Celtic, Norwegian 
 and Saxon migration over Europe, by the names and ter- 
 minals which still exist over that continent and even on 
 the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and says, " the 
 knowledge of the history and migrations of such tribes 
 must be recovered from the study of the names of the 
 places they once inhabited, but which now know them 
 
4 THE TRACK OF THE NOBSEMAN. 
 
 no more, from the names of the hills which they for- 
 tified, of the rivers by which they dwelt, of the distant 
 mountains upon which they gazed." He sa3'S, "in the 
 Shetlands, every local name without exception is Nor- 
 wegian. The names of the farms end in seter 
 
 or ster, and the hills are called hoy and 
 
 holl." and yet he also says, "the name of 
 
 Greenland is the only one left to remind us of the 
 Scandinavian settlements which were made in America 
 in the tenth century." Would the author have made 
 this exception to his axiom as to the durability of 
 names, had he remembered that the Norsemen called 
 the southern coast of Massachusetts Vineland, and 
 then had seen that we still have "Martins" or "Mar- 
 tha's Vineyard?" Had he sighted Cape Cod and 
 entered Vine3'ard Sound as the Norsemen did, in 
 rounding Monomo}^ Point, the south-east extremity of 
 the cape, he would have seen on his right a high 
 sand}' hill, on or near which is the light-house, over- 
 looking a land locked anchorage on the inside called 
 Powder Hole ; — a score or more of miles further along, 
 across the sound on his left he would have seen the hills 
 now called Oak Bluffs and the Highlands, and under 
 their lee a deep bay and roadstead long known as 
 Holmes' Hole, unfortunately changed to Vineyard 
 Haven ; — crossing over to the main-land again, a little 
 further west, he would have come to the bold but 
 prettily rounded hills forming the southwestern extremity 
 of the cape, and behind them, the sheltered and 
 picturesque harbor of Wood's Hole. 
 
 Proceeding thence torwards Narragansett Ba}', along 
 the south coast of Naushon, prominent hills on the 
 West end of that Island slope down to a roadstead 
 for small craft, and a passage through to Buzzard's 
 
THE TBACK OF THE NORSEMAN. 5 
 
 Ba}', called Robinson's Hole : — the next island is 
 Pasque, and between its high hills and those of 
 Nashawena. is a passage called Quick's Hole. Now these 
 several localities are unlike each other except that 
 all have hills in their vicinity, serving as distinguishing- 
 land marks. And wh}^ is not the w^ord Hole as ap- 
 plied to them, a corruption of the Norwegian word 
 Holl, meaning hill? The descriptive term Hole is 
 not applicable to an}^ of them, but the word Holl is, to 
 the adjacent hills, while there is little else in common 
 between them. The localities now called Quick's and 
 Robinson's Hole are passages between Elizabeth Islands ; 
 Wood's Hole is a passage and a harbor ; Holmes' Hole 
 now known as Vineyard Haven, is a deep bay or an- 
 chorage ; and Powder Hole was formerl}- a capacious 
 roadstead, now nearly filled with sand. 
 
 It may seem to militate with the theory advanced, 
 that south of Powder Hole or Monomoy Point, is a lo- 
 calit}' called on the chart Butler's Hole, which lies in the 
 course from Handkerchief Shoal to Pollock Rip, where 
 there is now not only no hill, but no land. But it is 
 to be considered that almost within the memor3' of man 
 there was land in that vicinity, which has been washed 
 away by the same strong and eccentric current that has 
 nearly filled up Powder Hole harbor and made it a 
 sand-flat, and which still casts up on the shore large 
 roots and remains of trees. With this in mind it is not 
 wild to suppose that Butler's Hole marks a spot where 
 once was an island with a prominent hill, which the 
 sea kings called a Holl, and which has succumbed to 
 the powerful abrasion of the tides which have moved 
 Pollock Rip many 3'ards to the eastward, and which every 
 3'ear make and unmake shoals in the vicinity of Nan- 
 tucket and Cape Cod. 
 
6 THE TBACK OF THE NOB SE MAN. 
 
 It would seem a matter of course that the Norse- 
 meu after their loug and perhaps rough vo3'ages, when 
 once arrived in the sheltered waters and harbors of 
 Vine3'ard Sound should have become familiar with them 
 and should have lingered there to recruit and refit, 
 before proceeding westward ; or on their return, to 
 have waited there to gather up resources before ventur- 
 ing out on the open ocean. Indeed it is recorded in 
 their sagas, that the}' brought off boat loads of grapes 
 from those pleasant shores. What more probable than 
 that they cultivated friendly relations with the natives, 
 and in coming to an understanding with them on sub- 
 jects in common, should have told them the Norwegian 
 terms for the hills and headlands of their coast, and 
 that the Indians in the paucitj^ of their own language, 
 should have adopted the appellative Holl which the}^ 
 were told signified hill, so important as a landmark 
 to these wandering sea-kings ! Why may not the 
 Norseman have called them so, until the natives 
 adopted the same title, and handed it down to the 
 English explorers under Bartholomew Gosnold who 
 gave their own patronymics to those several Holls, 
 or Holes as now called? The statement of "the oldest 
 inhabitant" of Wood's Hole, on being asked where 
 the word Hole came from, is, that he "always un- 
 derstood that it came from the Indians." 
 
 There being no harbor on the shores of Martha's 
 Vineyard island west of Holmes' Hole, the voyagers 
 would naturally follow the north shore of the Sound 
 and become familiar with the Elizabeth Islands, and 
 be more likely to give names to the localities on 
 that side than on the other. Between Wood's Hole 
 and Holmes' Hole the Sound is narrowest, and they 
 would be apt -to frequent either harbor as the winds 
 
THE TBACK OF THE NORSEMAN. 7 
 
 and tide might make it safe or convenient for tliem. 
 It seems to confirm the views here advanced that 
 in no other part of this Continent or of the world, 
 where the English have settled, is to be commonl}- 
 found the local name of Hole, and jet here in a 
 distance of sixty miles, the thoroughfare of these bold 
 navigators, there are no less ihan five such, still extant. 
 How can it be explained except because it is " the 
 track of the Norsemen?" It is not natural or proba- 
 ble, with their imperfect means of navigation, that 
 they should have passed from Greenland to Narragan- 
 sett Bay, leaving distinct traces in each, and yet to 
 have ignored the whole intervening space, and not to 
 have lingered awhile on the shores where they found 
 grapes by the boat load, and which must have been 
 as fair and pleasant in those days as they are now. 
 It is to be hoped that at least, our people will not be in 
 haste to wipe out the local names of Vineyard Sound, 
 when it is so likely that they are the oldest on the Con. 
 tinent and give to Massachusetts a priority of discovery 
 and settlement over her sister States. Only let us 
 correct the spelling, and give proper significance to 
 them by calling the places now named Hole by the 
 appropriate title of Holl. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 011 563 738 1 
 
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