1863.] 659 



Artillery, to show either the feasibility or, once for all, the impos- 

 sibility of the undertaking. A special advantage is pointed out by 

 Spitzbergen being divided into two nearly equal parts from north to 

 south, thus very materially facilitating communications between the 

 different angular points. Admiral Beechey says that Captain Sa- 

 bine's plan was placed before the Royal Society in 1825 by Sir John 

 Herschel, taken into consideration in the autumn of the same year, 

 and warmly supported by Mr. Davies Gilbert, Sir Humphry Davy, 

 the then President, and by other members of the Royal Society. 

 The reasons why it was not carried out are not mentioned ; but Sir 

 John Herschel leaves us to infer that Captain Sabine was called upon 

 to display his powers in another scientific undertaking of a more 

 arduous though not less important kind. This explanation appeared 

 to be natural, and thus the whole matter was shelved for many 

 years. 



The plan in question seemed to me so simple and practical, and at 

 the same time so useful in a scientific point of view, that I could not 

 help espousing it with a very warm interest. In the year 1860, the 

 Swedish government and Diet, as well as Prince Oscar, granted funds 

 for a new scientific expedition to Spitzbergen. Being placed at the 

 head of this undertaking, in which a rather large number of scientific 

 men were willing to take part, I did not fail to call the attention of 

 the Academy of Sciences to the plan proposed by General Sabine in 

 1825. The Academy were alive to its importance; and their two 

 astronomical members, Professor Selander and Assessor Lindhagen, 

 who had themselves taken part in the Swedish-Norwegian triangula- 

 tion, considered that the explorations ought to be carried out, and for 

 that purpose they issued the requisite directions to two of the parti- 

 cipators in the expedition, Messrs. Duner and Chydenius. To them 

 it was confided to investigate whether suitable angular points could 

 be found from the islands north of Spitzbergen to Hope Island in 

 the South, either along the western coast of Spitzbergen or through 

 Hinloopen Strait and Weide Jans Water, which nearly divide Spitz- 

 bergen into two from north to south. One went on board the ship 

 which, according to the plan, was to explore the north of Spitz- 

 bergen and Hinloopen Strait, and the other on board the other ship 

 which was to explore the west of Spitzbergen and Weide Jans Water. 

 At the end of May 1861 the two vessels reached Amsterdam Island, in 



