Stokafixa
Perhaps the latter explanation is the best yet given of the mysterious island Scorafixa, or Stokafixa, in Andrea Bianco’s map of 1436.[315] It has sometimes been understood as Newfoundland, which bore long afterward the name Bacalaos, the equivalent in a different tongue of the northern “stockfish,” our codfish. But it would naturally be freely applied to any island in rather high latitudes which was conspicuous for that fishery, and Stokafixa seems near of kin to Fixlanda, which figures on divers maps as a combined suggestion of Iceland and the imaginary Frisland but with geographical features mainly borrowed from the former. The first-named identification may be tempting as establishing another pre-Columbian discovery of America, but it quite lacks corroboration; and Iceland was a great center of codfishery, distributing its name and attributes rather liberally in legend and on the maps. Humboldt incidentally mentions “l’île des Morues (île de Stockfisch, Stokafixa)” on the seventh map of the atlas of Bianco, 1436. I do not clearly make out the name on T. Fischer’s facsimile reproduction;[316] but from position and appearance the island seems meant for Iceland.