General Objects of the Expedition. j 



In order to satisfy the scientific requirements of the age, the 

 illustrious head of the navy issued orders, that the officers on 

 board should in every way assist in the researches to be made, 

 connected with navigation and geography ; and was, moreover, 

 pleased to invite the Imperial Academy of Sciences to nomi- 

 nate two members, he himself naming a third, to accompany 

 the Expedition for the purpose of observing and investigating 

 phenomena pertaining to the different branches of physical 

 science, as well as collecting rare specimens and interesting 

 objects of natural history. To this commission were ultimately 

 attached a botanist, a practical zoologist, an artist, and a 

 flower-ofardener. 



The Academy had, for the guidance of these gentlemen, 

 drawn up instructions which, with a multitude of other papers 

 containing useful hints and interesting queries, received from 

 the Imp. Geographical, Geological, and Medical Societies, as 

 well as from numerous foreign and native scientific men, 

 formed a most valuable collection of materials for the pur- 

 poses of the Expedition.* 



Foremost amongst these savans stood Alexander von Hum- 

 boldt, that illustrious man, who up to the last moment of his 

 existence was alive with youthful enthusiasm for every scientific 

 enterprise. In England great interest in the success of the 

 Expedition was evinced by Sir Roderic Murchison, Sir W. 



* Of these instnictions, " The physical and geognostical remarks," with which the 

 Nestor of natural science honoured the voyagers of the Novara, being of a more 

 general interest, are published at the end of tliis volume, together with the facsimile 

 of an autograph letter of Baron von Humboldt to the commander of tlio Expedition. 



B 2 



