"To eyes grown tired with looking far,
All at once appeared an island,
A stretching-place for sea-legs,
A quiet bed for backs grown stiff
On rowing-bench on rolling sea.
A place to build a red fire
And thaw the blood that sea-winds froze."
But when they came near they saw no place to land. The island was like a mountain of rock standing out of the water. The sides were steep and smooth. They sailed around it, but found no place to climb up.
"There are many other islands here," said Leif. "We will try another."
So he steered to another. It, too, was a steep rock, but one side sloped down to the water and was green with grass.
"Oh, I have not seen anything so good as that green grass since I looked into my mother's face," one man said.
There was a little harbor there. The men rowed in and quickly jumped out and put the rollers under the ship and pulled her upon shore. Then they threw themselves down on the grass and rolled and stretched their arms and shouted for joy. After that they built a fire and warmed themselves and cooked a meal and ate like wolves. They slept there that night.
In the morning before Ingolf's men started away they were standing high up on the hillside, looking about. They saw no houses on any of the islands, but they saw smoke rise from one hillside.
"Some other men, like us, weary of the sea and stopping to rest," said Ingolf.
They saw the island that they had sailed around the night before.
"There can surely be nothing but birds' nests on top of that," Sighvat said.