INTRODUCTION. 27 



almost contemporaneously with the coal-bearing formations of 

 South Sweden, and which therefore contain animal and vegetable 

 petrifications which just now are of very special interest for 

 geological science in our own country, with reference to the dis- 

 coveries of splendid fossil plants which of late years have been 

 made at several places among us, and give us so lively an idea 

 of the sub-tropical vegetation which in former times covered the 

 Scandinavian peninsula. 



Few sciences perhaps will yield so important practical results 

 as meteorology is likely to do at some future date — a fact, or 

 rather an already partly realised expectation, which has won 

 general recognition, as is shown by the large sums which in 

 all civilised countries have been set apart for establishing 

 meteorological offices and for encouraging meteorological re- 

 search. But the state of the weather in a country is so 

 dependent on the temperature, wind, pressure of the air, etc., 

 in very remote regions that the laws of the meteorology of a 

 country can only be ascertained by comparing observations from 

 the most distant regions. Several international meteorological 

 enterprises have already been started, and we may almost con- 

 sider the meteorological institutions of the different countries as 

 separate departments of one and the same office, distributed over 

 the whole world, through whose harmonious co-operation the 

 object in view shall one day be reached. But, beyond the places 

 for which daily series of observations may be obtained, there are 

 regions hundreds of square miles in extent from which no 

 observations, or only scattered ones, are yet to be had, and here 

 notwithstanding we have just the key to many meteorological 

 phenomena, otherwise difficult of explanation, within the civilised 

 countries of Europe. Such a meteorological territory, unknown, 

 but of the greatest importance, is formed by the Polar Sea lying 

 to the north of Siberia, and the land and islands there situated. 

 It is of great importance for the meteorology of Europe and of 

 Sweden to obtain trustw^orthy accounts of the distribution of the 

 land, of the state of the ice, the pressure of the air, and the 

 temperature in that in these respects little-known part of the 

 globe, and the Swedish expedition will here have a subject for 

 investigation of direct importance for our own country. 



To a certain extent the same may be said of the contributions 

 which may be obtained from those regions to our knoAvledge 

 of terrestrial magnetism, of the aurora, etc. There are, besides, 

 the examination of the flora and fauna in those countries, 

 hitherto unknown in this respect, ethnographical researches, 

 hydrographical work, etc. 



I have of course only been able to notice shortly the scientific 

 questions which will meet the expedition during a stay of some 

 length on the north coast of Siberia, but what has been said 



