everything of the best quality. Among other articles of supply taken to avert that pest of the Arctic regions, scurvy, may be mentioned lime-juice, pickled cabbage, concentrated rum, pickles, preserved vegetables, mulberry jam, dried fruit, and preserved cream. After some days' stay at Copenhagen, necessary for the shipment and stowage of the supplies, we left there on the 26th of June, and arrived at Gothenburg on the following day. At Gothenburg the following gentlemen embarked: F. R. Kjellman, botanist, Fellow of Upsala University; Dr. A. Stuxberg, zoologist; O. Nordqvist, lieutenant in the Russian army, interpreter and zoologist Dr. Almqvist, medical officer of the expedition; and a personal attendant for Professor Nordenskiöld. Provision and coal supply were completed here, and also we shipped the scientific equipment; sledges, and pemmican for sledge journeys; and two collie dogs, bought in Scotland.

S.

On the afternoon of the 4th of July we left Gothenburg, not again to see the dear shores of our native land for nearly two years. A stiff contrary wind delayed our voyage to our next place of destination, Tromsoe, where we did not arrive until July 17th. Here embarked the leader of the expedition, Professor Nordenskiöld, and three Norwegian fishermen.

Our number was now complete, and made thirty men all told, comprising nine officers and scientific gentlemen, three non-commissioned officers, and eighteen of a crew. In Tromsoe a full supply of water and coals was taken in, also a parcel of furs and sundry other articles.

At our departure from Tromsoe the coal supply consisted of nearly 225 tons. At the lowest reckoning, with deduction of fuel for galley and stoves, it was estimated that the Vega could, solely with the assistance of her engine, make more than 4000 miles, which nearly corresponded to the distance between Tromsoe and Behring Strait.

From private sources the crew had been provided with under-vests, drawers, stockings (long and short), and mitts of wool, sailcloth boots, fur mitts, fur caps, hoods, snow spectacles, etc.

On the 21st of July we steamed out

of Tromsoe Harbor, accompanied by the steamer Lena, which was to go with us to the mouth of the river Lena, proceed up that river to Yakutsk, and thereafter be employed in the conveyance of passengers and goods.

The Lena was quite new, built to the order of Herr Sibirikoff, formerly mentioned, at the Motala Engineering Works, of Swedish Bessemer steel, provided with a high-pressure engine of 15 horse-power, which consumed 2 cwt. of coal per hour. She was 90 feet long, 17 feet broad, and 7 feet draught, with a cargo of 65 tons dead weight, including coals. She cost £2500, and, like the Vega, carried the Royal Swedish Yacht Club's flag. She was commanded by an experienced Norwegian whaler, and had a crew of nine men. with provisions for sixteen months, and with 40 tons of coal.

She was supplied

After having been compelled by a severe storm to take refuge for three days in a bay near North Cape, we ultimately got out to sea on the 25th of July. A pretty stiff breeze with heavy sea soon brought about our separation from our lesser companion the Lena, and we did not again see her until the 31st of July, the day after we anchored at our rendezvous, Yugorscharr, the sound lying between Waigatz Island (south of Novaya Zemlia) and the mainland. At Yugorscharr we also met other two vessels, the steamer Fraser and the bark Express, which, through Professor Nordenskiöld, had been chartered for account of Herr Sibirikoff to load a cargo of grain and tallow at the mouth of the Yenisei.

At Yugorscharr there is a village of which the inhabitants are partly Samoiedes, partly Russian. The Samoiedes there settled were Christians, spoke pretty fair Russian, and had a church of their own, although it was little better or larger than a very small and poor wooden hovel. They are a people of small stature, with broad faces, prominent -cheek-bones, yellow complexion, oblique eyes, and flat noses. Their costume is much like that worn by the Lapps. They live on what they catch of seals and fish. The Russians in the village remain there only during summer, during which season they fish and barter goods with the Samoiedes, returning in the autumn to the interior of Russia. They

usually have their homes in Petchora or that district.

On the 1st of August, with beautiful weather, all four vessels (the Express in tow of the Fraser) left their anchorage at Yugorscharr and were soon in the Kara Sea, which was then completely free from ice as far as the eye could reach.

At our entrance into the Kara Sea the scientific work of the expedition began. From that day were instituted complete meteorological observations, dragging, sounding, investigations of the temperature, and of the specific gravity of the water at different depths.

Early on the morning of August 3d we met the first drift-ice, which was, however, of such a description as could be easily passed through. With the object of avoiding contact with more compact and stronger ice we steered down toward the coast of the Samoiede peninsula, which we followed as close as the shallow water permitted. The land, which is properly only a sandbank cast up by the powerful river Obi, could not be seen by us, although the atmosphere was quite clear. We met here only spread and easily navigable drift-ice.

As a

The Lena, with Hovgaard, Almqvist, and Nordqvist on board, was sent off to investigate the sound lying between the peninsula and White Island, but found it impossible, on account of the numerous sandbanks, to go through it. result of very nasty weather, and the poverty of the land in animal and vegetable life, the harvest reaped by our scientific companions on this occasion was somewhat meagre.

On the 4th of August we rounded the point of White Island in water entirely free from ice. Here we met a stiff breeze from the north, which, in conjunction with a high cross sea in three or four fathoms of water, was anything but agreeable, particularly as no trustworthy chart of these regions is yet to be had. The water was of a brown color, precisely similar to that of many of our own rivers in Sweden. Danger of stranding, however, does not exist, even although one should happen to be near the flat shores of the White Island during a storm, because the powerful current from the confluence of the Obi and Yenisei rivers in the neighborhood of the above island sets north during the summer

season with a velocity of three to five knots.

On the 6th of August we anchored beside one of the group of islands which lie outside Dickson's Harbor. Two hours later the Express and the Fraser anchored near us. In the afternoon, after the course had been examined by the steam-launch, we went farther in and anchored in the harbor, which is well protected by land on all sides. The following day the Lena arrived from its exploring expedition.

Both in Yugorscharr and Dickson's Harbor the Lena as well as the Vega took coal supplies from the Express, which had carried about 400 tons of coal from London instead of ballast. these vessels letters and telegrams were dispatched to be further transmitted from Norway.

By

On the 9th of August the Express left us in tow of the Fraser, and steered up the Yenesei, to ship at the appointed place, Yakovieva, the cargo formerly mentioned.

After having mapped the harbor, prosecuted various scientific investigations, and made the ship clear for sea, we left our anchorage early on the morning of the 10th of August, and steered for the Arctic Sea. The course was set for the Kammeni Islands, with the intention of afterward following the coast of Taimyr Land to Taimyr Island. Already, during the first day, we met several small islands, which, according to the chart we had, should have lain sixty miles farther east.

This was not the last time we made the discovery that the coast was described in this chart as much farther east than in reality it is. This was par ticularly noticeable when we reached the other side of Cape Tchelyuskin, where, according to the map, we sailed over long stretches of land.

The map which we used as a chart had been constructed by the Russian general staff, and was founded upon old delineations from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We found the coast correctly delineated for the first time from the other side of Kolyma River to Koliutchin Bay. That portion has been described by Admiral von Wrangel, as recently as 1821-23. The map was, besides, more a land than a sea chart. The

depth was indicated in very few instances, and these were usually at fault. It was necessary, therefore, to proceed with the utmost caution. Our regulations were to sound every hour as long as we were in deep water-that is to say, as long as the depth was not less than seven to ten fathoms. At a less depth we sounded every quarter of an hour; and often, when we were sailing along the coast, in from three to four fathoms of water, or even less, the hand-line was constantly employed for days in succession. As soon as the depth decreased to about four fathoms, the steam-launch, which was always kept with steam up, was put out and sent before the Vega. This could be easily done in water free from ice or in spread drift-ice; but when the ice was so compact that the Vega had to force a passage through, the steamlaunch, of course, could not be used.

Only upon one occasion, when we stood eastward from Cape Tchelyuskin, we sounded and found seventy fathoms; at no other place, even when far out at sea, had we more than twenty fathoms, and as soon as we neared the coast the depth gradually decreased to three or four fathoms and under. Usually we sailed in a depth of from five to seven fathoms.

On the 11th of August we anchored near an unknown island to await better weather, there being a storm of wind and rain right in our teeth. On the afternoon of the same day, when the wind had somewhat moderated, we continued our voyage.

As

On the 12th we encountered drift-ice, but so spread that, without too many deviations, we contrived to go forward in a north-easterly direction. The ice now began to be accompanied by fog, which in the Arctic waters is more dense than anywhere else in the world. long as there is drift-ice in the neighborhood, so long can one almost with certainty calculate upon having an impenetrable fog, which only lifts for a few hours during the day, usually immediately after noon or early in the morning. Öften when the fog disperses at mid-day there is brilliant sunshine, and one discovers that the course taken in the driftice during the fog is wrong, and there is nothing for it but to return the same way and begin to push forward anew by anNEW SERIES.-VOL. XXXI., No. 5

other and better route. The fog rises and falls very suddenly without any premonitory signs, and might be compared to a stage curtain, which is alternately raised and dropped.

On the 13th of August, during a dense fog, we found ourselves close upon land right ahead of us, as well as on both sides. Fortunately we were proceeding with such caution that by backing we could come to a standstill before we had run ashore. We anchored, and when the atmosphere cleared somewhat for a few moments, we found that the land beside which we had anchored was simply an isolated heap of stones of a C form lying out in the sea. For the remainder of the 13th and part of the 14th we lay in compact drift-ice and fog, unable to make any advance. On the evening of the 14th we were favored with a few hours' clear weather, and managed to make a little progress landward, where the ice appeared thinnest. As our scientific party wished to go ashore for the purpose of collecting, we anchored in a bay on the south-west of Taimyr Island. The bay was named Actinia Harbor, on account of the vast numbers of Actinia (or sea-anemones) which were found on the bottom. Here we were detained three and a half days by a dense fog. During that time, with the aid of the steam-launch, there were several excursions made to investigate the sound lying between Taimyr Island and the mainland, which at its western mouth was so shallow, narrow, and rocky that the Vega could not pass through it. The current here always runs westward with. a speed of three to five knots.

On the morning of the 18th of August the fog rose so far as to permit us to go.. to sea.

The course was taken north of Taimyr Island, between some reefs. covered with boulders, which were now and then discernible through the rapidlyreturning fog. During the night, after having passed through a great deal of drift-ice, and seen at a distance several large islands lying northward, we sighted the land south of Cape Tchelyuskin. The land here lay considerably farther west than as delineated on the chart.

On the afternoon of the 19th of August we doubled the Old World's. most northerly point, Cape Tchelyuskin,, the Vega being the first vessel which has

34

southern extremity is probably connected with Olenek Land. It lies north and south, and is probably cast up by the river Olenek and the western arm of the Lena.

After having gone round the sandbank, we proceeded on our voyage, steering eastward for the Lena's most northerly mouth. At this point a pilot from Yakutsk was to meet us to take the steamer Lena up the river to that town.

As the river Lena has numerous mouths in its northern delta, it had been prearranged that the pilot, who, during the whole of the navigable season, must be found at the place, should set a seamark at that mouth where the greatest depth was obtainable Our intention was to accompany the Lena to the mouth of the river, and remain there for a few days for scientific research. But on the night of the 27th August, when we were outside our proposed anchorage, we found navigable water and a favorable wind. The opportunity was too good to be allowed to slip out of our hands. In the utmost haste we closed our letters and telegrams to our friends at home and sent them on board the Lena. She was now left to her own devices to prosecute her journey to her place of destination. We spread our canvas, and, making good speed, proceeded eastward to work out our way alone through the remaining portion of the North-east Passage. Our lesser companion had proved most useful to us, as whenever the water became shallow she preceded us and took soundings.

On the 28th August we were again among close but nevertheless navigable drift-ice. At mid-day we sighted Wasilieffski Island on our starboard-bow, which we ought to have had on our other side far to the north. We had then not taken observations since the 26th.

During that interval of forty-eight hours the current from the rivers Lena and Yana had carried us 70 miles to the north. We went on the south side of Wasilieffski Island, from which there stretched out in a southerly direction a sandbank so low that it was only at a distance of eight miles from the island that we managed to pass it in a depth of eighteen feet. This proves the validity of the general rule that all islands north

of Siberia are extremely flat on the southern side, but contrariwise, precipitous and deep on the northern, on which side they can usually be passed at a distance of a few hundred feet.

As Professor Nordenskiöld wished to land on Liakov Island, the most southerly of the New Siberian group, to collect mammoth and other fossil remains, the course was set for that island's western shore. On the 29th we had such exceedingly hard work among close driftice that it was only with the utmost difficulty we could go forward at all. Ultimately we succeeded in forcing our way through, and passed to the north of Stolbovoi Island, on the eastern side of which we found completely clear water for about ten miles. Here the log was heaved, and it was found that the Vega, using her sails alone, and with a favorable wind, was going at the rate of eleven knots an hour. This was the greatest speed attained during our voyage along the Siberian coast.

The following morning we stood in toward Liakov Island, to which, in consequence of the shallows, we could make no nearer approach than at four to five miles distance; and these shallows, in conjunction with an impending fog, made it impossible to go ashore. We therefore steered southward for Cape Sviatoi, the point of which we doubled, after much trouble with the ice, in the night between 30th and 31st August. From thence we had two days of exceedingly good weather, during which we sailed along by the coast in water all but quite free from ice. We required, however, to keep some little distance out, as the water was shallow. The coast here was very flat, and was almost invisible to us on account of fog.

On

On the night between the 2d and 3d of September the drift-ice closed up; the temperatue, which had hitherto in general kept above zero, now fell below, and we had our first real snowfall. the 3d of September, during the day, in a snow-storm, we rounded the point lying north-east of the mouth of Kolyma River. The coast here was somewhat high and mountainous. We sailed at some cables'-length distance from the coast, and with alternate snow-storms and clear weather passed between the Bear Islands. On the most easterly of