SKETCH OF BARON ADOLF ERIC NORDENSKIOLD. 535 



unlimited freedom, the teachers showing no inclination to meddle 

 much with the occupations of their pupils. He entered the University 

 . of Helsingfors in 1849, and devoted himself chiefly to the study of 

 chemistry, natural history, mathematics, physics, and particularly 

 mineralogy and geology. Having passed his candidate examination 

 in 1853, he accompanied his father on a mineralogical tour to the 

 Ural. In this expedition, according to Professor Fries, of Upsala, 

 was unconsciously laid in him the beginning out of which his later 

 expeditions grew. " It was an instance of the old eagle teaching the 

 young one to fly." After his return from this excursion, Nordenskiold 

 continued to prosecute his chemical and mineralogical studies with zeal. 

 The subject of his dissertation for the licentiate, " On the Crystalline 

 Forms of Graphite and Chondrodite," which was delivered on the 28th 

 of February, 1855, bore relation to them. During the following sum- 

 mer he was engaged upon a description of minerals found in Finland, 

 which was published in the fall. Various short papers on mineralogy 

 and molecular chemistry were published in the " Transactions of the 

 Finnish Scientific Society," and a paper on " The Mollusca of Finland " 

 was published by NordenskiGld, along with Dr. E. Nylander, in 1856, 

 in response to a prize question proposed by one of the faculty of the 

 university. While these studies were being prosecuted, young Nor- 

 denskiold had been appointed salaried curator of the mathematico- 

 physical faculty, and had obtained a post at the mining office as min- 

 ing engineer extraordinary, with inconsiderable pay, and an express 

 understanding that no service would be required from him in return. 

 He lost these positions in consequence of having been present at a 

 festival where too much freedom was given to the expression of polit- 

 ical feelings, and spent a few months abroad, working a part of the 

 time at Rore's laboratory in Berlin at researches in mineral analysis. 

 Returning to Finland, he secured a stipend for a line of study through 

 Europe in 1857 ; but at the " Promotion Festival " in that year, where 

 he was to take his master's and doctor's degrees, more liberal views 

 were aired, which Yon Berg, the governor of the Duchy, considered 

 treasonable, and Nordenskiold left Finland again, this time not to re- 

 turn as a fixed resident. The displeasure of the Government against 

 him was not, however, of long continuance, for he has been welcome 

 in Finland since 1862, and he might have been appointed Professor of 

 Mineralogy in the University of Helsingfors, had he been willing to 

 agree to give up politics. He became naturalized in Sweden, and soon 

 rose to eminence in public life and in science. 



The 'Arctic voyages of Baron Nordenskiold began in 1858, when 

 he took part in the Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen under Torell, 

 the chief of the Swedish Geological Survey. On his return, he was 

 appointed successor to Mosander in the Riks Museum at Stockholm, 

 where he immediately went to work, partly at the arrangement of the 

 museum, partly at the scientific researches which formed the subjects 



