54 Zoohf/ical Objecls of the Expedition. 



friendly concurrence of the Swedish Government, we cannot, 

 therefore, expect that the discovery of a great number of ob- 

 jects new to science will reward their efforts. But neither 

 subjects of research, nor the means of being useful to zoology, 

 will be wanting to them in the various countries which they 

 are successively to traverse. 



In the Scandinavian Peninsula the transition gradually 

 takes place of the Fauna of temperate and central Europe, 

 with which we are so well acquainted, into the fauna of the 

 circumpolar regions, respecting which, on the contrary, we 

 possess very imperfect information. In no other place — and 

 it is this which appears to us to constitute the principal inte- 

 rest of the study of the zoology of Scandinavia — can this 

 tran-sition be observed and traced with so much advantage to 

 science. The north of Russia, the only European country 

 which, with Lapland, extends to the north of the Arctic polar 

 circle, may undoubtedly hereafter afford equal facilities, but 

 cannot at present supply groimds of comparison of equal inte- 

 rest for zoological geography. This possibility cannot be rea- 

 lized, till the Fauna of temperate Russia, by becoming as well 

 known to us as that of central Europe, shall afford a perfectly 

 estabUshed term of comparison for the Fauna of the Arctic 

 regions of the Russian Empire. 



By placing the subject in the point of view just indicated, 

 the zoologists of the expedition will give the greatest scope 

 to their researches, and confer most benefit on science. Re- 

 searches thus planned, ought, in fact, to be directed to a triple 

 object, viz. to render the history of our species of central 

 Europe complete, in its vai'ious relations ; to collect as ample 

 materials as possible for the history of the Arctic species, 

 which is often incomplete, and occasionally altogether un- 

 known ; finally, to bring together all the facts fitted to throw 

 light on their geographical distribution, and on the relations 

 they bear to each other in the Scandinavian Peninsula. 



§ 1. Of these three objects, thus generally expressed, but 

 which we .shall successively revert to, and decompose, so to 

 speak, into their principal elements, the first, in our opinion, 

 is neither the least difficult nor the least important. At a 

 period not very remote from the present time, it might have 



