XX.] RECEPTION AT PARIS. 73?> 



Winchester. Here we saw the way — an exceedingly quiet one — 

 in which an Enghsh parKamentary election goes on. The same 

 day we paid a visit to Mr. Spottiswoode, the President of the 

 Royal Society, at his magnificent country seat, in the neighbour- 

 hood of London. Here I saw several instructive experiments 

 with very large machines for the production of light by 

 electric discharges in higldy rarified air. Wednesday the 31st, 

 grand dinner at the Swedish minister's, and in the evening of the 

 same day a Scandinavian fete in the Freemasons' Hall, at which 

 there were great rejoicings according to old northern usages. 



We started for Paris on the night before the 1st April. We 

 went by Boulogne-sur-Mer, whose Chamber of Commerce had 

 invited us to a fete to celebrate the first landing of the Vega 

 men on the soil of France after the North-East Passage was 

 achieved. Several of the authorities of the town and 

 Dr. Hamy, a delegate from the Geographical Society of Paris 

 met us in the waiting-room at the station. Here a break- 

 fast had been arranged, in the course of which we were 

 presented to a number of eminent persons of the place, with 

 whom we afterwards passed the greater part of the day in the 

 most agreeable way. After making several excursions in the 

 neighbourhood of the town and paying the necessary official 

 visits, we partook of a festive dinner arranged by the munici- 

 pality. From Boulogne we travelled by night to Paris, arriving 

 there on the 2nd April at 7 A.M. 



Notwithstanding the early morning hour we were received 

 here at the station in a festive way by the Swedish-Norwegian 

 minister and the 'personnel of the Legation, a deputation from 

 the Geographical Society of Paris, and a considerable number 

 of the members of the Scandinavian colony in the capital of 

 France. The famous Madagascar traveller, Grandidier, 

 President of the Geographical Society's Central Committee, 

 welcomed vis, with lively expressions of assent from the sur- 

 rounding crowd. We were invited during our stay in the 

 city to live with our countryman, A. NoBEL, in a very 

 comfortable villa belonsfincr to him, Rue Malakoff, No. 53, and 

 I cannot sufficiently commend the liberal way in which he here 

 discliarged the duties of a host and assisted us during our stay 

 in Paris, which, though very agreeable and honouring to us, 

 demanded an extraordinary amount of exertion. 



Our reception in Paris was magnificent, and it appeared as 

 if the metropolis of the world wished to show by the way in 

 which she honoured a feat of navigation that it is not without 

 reason that she bears on her shield a vessel surrounded by 

 swelling billows. It is a pleasant duty for me here to offer 



Palunder the Founder's Gold Medal (I had in 18G9 obtained the same 

 distinction) and elected me an Honorary Corresponding Member. 



