538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ney from fete to fete. But a number of voices were simultaneously 

 raised, which asserted that the success of the Proeven depended on an 

 accidental combination of fortunate circumstances which would not 

 soon occur again. In order to show that this was not the case, and 

 that I might myself bring the first goods by sea to Siberia, I under- 

 took my second voyage to the Yenisei in 1876, in which I penetrated 

 with the steamer Ymer, not only to the mouth of the river, but also 

 up the river to Yakovieva in 71 north latitude. Hence I returned 

 the same year by sea to Europe." 



Between these two voyages, Baron Nordenskiold found time to 

 visit our International Exhibition at Philadelphia, in connection with 

 which his name is recorded as one of the judges in the group of pot- 

 tery, glass, artificial stone, etc., and as an exhibitor of maps. " And it 

 may deserve to be mentioned," he says, " that, leaving New York on 

 the 1st of July by one of the ordinary steamers, and going on board 

 my own vessel in Norway, I reached the mouth of the Yenisei on the 

 15th of August that is to say, in forty-six days." 



The voyages of the Proeven and the Ymer led to several purely 

 commercial voyages to the Yenisei and the Obi. After his return from 

 the second voyage, he became fully satisfied, in the light of his own 

 experience and of the old explorations of the north coast of Asia, that 

 the open navigable water, which for two years in succession had car- 

 ried him across the Kara Sea, formerly of so bad repute, to the mouth 

 of the Yenisei, extended in all probability as far as Behring Strait, 

 and that a circumnavigation of the Old World was thus within the 

 bounds of possibility. 



He conceived the idea of a new voyage, the purpose of which was 

 to pass through the whole extent of the Arctic Ocean to Behring 

 Strait, and thence around the continent back to Stockholm. He so- 

 licited an audience with the king, the scientific men, and Arctic voy- 

 agers of the country. It was given him on the 27th of January, 1877, 

 and he came to it fully prepared with a statement of his purposes and 

 his reasons for considering them feasible. Besides "the world-histori- 

 cal navigation problem," which would be solved by the success of the 

 enterprise, he suggested that " extensive contributions of immense im- 

 portance ought also to be obtainable regarding the geography, hydrog- 

 raphy, zoology, and botany of the Siberian polar sea ; and beyond 

 Behring Strait the expedition will meet with other countries having 

 a more luxuriant and varied nature, where other questions which per- 

 haps concern us less, but on that account are not of less importance 

 for science as a whole, will claim the attention of the observer and yield 

 him a rich reward for his labor and pains." 



He received the encouragement and aid he asked for, and was able 

 to sail in July, 1878, on a new expedition, the complete success of 

 which is a matter of history, and the ultimate results of which, in the 

 opening of new branches and lines of trade, and the bringing to pos- 



