SKETCH OF BARON ADOLF ERIC NORDENSKIOLD. 539 



sible productiveness of an immense region hitherto supposed to be 

 consigned to the dominion of ice, can not as yet be adequately esti- 

 mated. 



The value of his work was appreciated by the people with whom 

 he came in contact during the course of the voyage. On the arrival 

 of the expedition of 1875 at the Lena, the Dolgans at that remote 

 spot on the border of the tundra, " when they understood clearly that 

 we had come to them not as brandy-sellers or fish-buyers from the 

 south, but from the north, from the ocean, went into complete ec- 

 stasies .... At Dudino, also, the priests living there held a thanks- 

 giving service for our happy arrival thither." The voyage home, 

 around the Pacific coast and by the Indian Ocean and Suez Canal, 

 was marked by a series of festivities given at every point where the 

 Vega touched. At Yeddo the navigators were greeted with deputa- 

 tions, bearing addresses of welcome and invitations, and were given 

 a lunch with the Mikado, and a special audience with his Majesty. 

 Similar scenes were repeated, with such variations as circumstances 

 made appropriate, at Hong-Kong, Cairo, Naples, Lisbon, Paris, Copen- 

 hagen, and Stockholm. At Naples, the expedition was welcomed 

 back to Europe by the representative of King Oscar of Sweden, who 

 also conferred Swedish decorations on Baron Nordenskiold and Lieu- 

 tenant Palander ; an Italian officer came down from Turin commis- 

 sioned by the Government, and bearing the welcomes of several munici- 

 palities and scientific societies, with Italian orders for the men of the 

 Vega. At Lisbon, in addition to the usual audiences and receptions, 

 the Portuguese Chamber of Deputies voted a welcome and a congratu- 

 latory address. Circumstances prevented the public demonstrations 

 which had been arranged for in England from being held, but the 

 visit of Nordenskiold and Palander to London was made pleasant by 

 the hospitality of the most distinguished scientific men of the king- 

 dom. At Paris a public reception was given by the Geographical 

 Society; the commanders' and officers' insignia of the Legion of Honor 

 were conferred by the Minister of Education, at a meeting of the 

 delegates of twenty-eight learned societies held in the Sorbonne ; a wel- 

 come was given by the Institute followed by a festive reception by 

 the Municipal Council ; numerous dinners were eaten, and medals 

 were liberally distributed. Invitations to Holland and Belgium had 

 to be declined " from want of time and strength to take part in more 

 festivities." The entrance to Stockholm was made through a thick 

 fleet of excursion-steamers gayly decorated, and under a brilliant illu- 

 mination of the city ; and, after the first enthusiastic welcomes, "fUe 

 followed fete for several weeks." Writing of this expedition, Dr. 

 Karl Miiller says, in "Die Natur," that u among the most recent 

 voyages none has been so splendidly planned, none undertaken 

 with such noble means and pursued with such eminent scientific suc- 

 cess as the circumnavigation of Europe and Asia by Nordenskiold 



