10 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



scientific and geographical results they have yielded; and through 

 the material for scientific research, which by them has been 

 collected for the Swedish Riks-Museum, and which has made it, 

 in respect of Arctic natural objects, the richest in the world. 

 To tliis there come to be added discoveries and investigations 

 which already are, or promise in the future to become, of 

 practical importance ; for example, the meteorological and hydro- 

 graphical work of the expeditions ; their comprehensive inquiries 

 regarding the Seal and Whale Fisheries in the Polar Seas ; the 

 pointing out of the previously unsuspected richness in fish, of 

 the coasts of Spitzbergen ; the discoveries, on Bear Island and 

 Spitzbergen, of considerable strata of coal and phosphatic 

 minerals which are likely to be of great economic importance 

 to neighbouring countries ; and, above all, the success of the two 

 last expeditions in reaching the mouths of the large Siberian 

 rivers, navigable to the confines of China — the Obi and Yenisej 

 — whereby a problem in navigation, many centuries old, has at 

 last been solved. 



But the very results that have been obtained incite to a 

 continuation, especially as the two last expeditions have opened 

 a new field of inquiry, exceedingly promising in a scientific, and 

 I venture also to say in a practical, point of view, namely, the 

 part of the Polar Sea lying east of the mouth of the Yenisej. 

 Still, even in our days, in the era of steam and the telegraph, there 

 meets us here a territory to be explored, which is new to science, 

 and hitherto untouched. Indeed, the whole of the immense 

 expanse of ocean Avhich stretches over 90 degrees of longitude 

 from the mouth of the Yenisej past Cape Chelyuskin — the 

 Promontorium Tabin of the old geographers — has, if we except 

 voyages in large or small boats along the coast, never yet been 

 })loughed by tlie keel of any vessel, and never seen the funnel 

 of a steamer. 



It was this state of things which led me to attempt to procure 

 funds for an expedition, equipped as completely as possible, 

 both in a scientific and a nautical respect, with a view to 

 investigate the geography, hydrography, and natural history 

 of the North Polar Sea beyond the mouth of the Yenisej, if 

 possible as far as Behring's Straits. It may be afiirmed without 

 any danger of exaggeration, that since Cook's famous voyages 

 in the Pacific Ocean, no more promising field of research has 

 lain before any exploring expedition, if only the state of the 

 ice permit a suitable steamer to force a passage in that sea. In 

 order to form a judgment on this point, it may perhaps be 

 necessary to cast a brief glance backwards over the attempts 

 which have been made to penetrate in the direction which the 

 projected expedition is intended to take. 



The Swedish port from which the expedition is to start will 



