G THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



question, and at the same time to resolve on making a proposal 

 to the Diet in which additional grants were to be asked for it. 



The proposal to the Diet of 1878 was agreed to with that 

 liberality which has always distinguished the representatives 

 of the Swedish people when grants for scientific purposes have 

 been asked for ; which was also the case with a private motion 

 made in the same Diet by the President, C. F. W^RN, member 

 of the Academy of Sciences, whereby it was proposed to 

 confer some further privileges on the undertaking. 



It is impossible here to give at length the decision of the 

 Diet, and the correspondence which was exchanged with the 

 authorities with reference to it. But I am under an obligation 

 (jf gratitude to refer to the exceedingly pleasant reception I 

 met with everywhere, in the course of these negotiations, . 

 from officials of all ranks, and to give a brief account of 

 the privileges which the expedition finally came to enjoy, 

 mainly owing to the letter of the Government to the Marine 

 Department, dated the 14th June, 1878. 



Two officers and seventeen men of the Royal Swedish 

 Navy having obtained permission to take part in the ex- 

 pedition as volunteers, I was authorised to receive on account 

 of the expedition from the treasury of the Navy, at Karls- 

 krona — with the obligation of returning that portion of the 

 funds which might not be required, and on giving approved 

 security — full sea pay for two years for the officers, petty 

 officers, and men taking part in the expedition ; pay for the 

 medical officer, at the rate of 3,500 Swedish crowns a year, 

 for the same time ; and subsistence money for the men belong- 

 ing to the Navy, at the rate of one and a half Swedish crowns 

 per man per day. The sum, by which the cost of provisions 

 exceeded the amount calculated at this rate, was defrayed by 

 the expedition, which likewise gave a considerable addition 

 to the pay of the sailors belonging to the Navy. I further 

 obtained permission to receive, on account of the expedition, 

 from the Navy stores at Karlskrona, provisions, medicines, 

 coal, oil, and other necessary equipment, under obligation to 

 pay for any excess of value over 10,000 Swedish crowns (about 

 550/.) ; and finally the vessel of the expedition was permitted 

 to be equipped and made completely seaworthy at the naval 

 dockyard at Karlskrona, on condition, however, that the excess 

 of expenditure on repairs over 25,000 crowns (about 1,375/.) 

 should be defrayed by the expedition. 



On the other hand my request that the Vega, the steamer 

 purchased for the voyage, might be permitted to carry the 

 man-of-war fiag, was refused by the Minister of Marine in 

 a letter of the 2nd February 1878. The Vega was therefore 

 inscribed in the followincf month of March in the Swedish 



