September 5, 1901] 



NA TURE 



451 



quarter's salary he was removed from these offices at 

 the instigation of the Governor-General, Count von Berg. 

 This was done on account of some political speeches of 

 a frolicsome nature made at a tavern in Tholo. Some 

 of the students were rusticated for a term, and Norden- 

 skjold got double dismissal without further ceremony. 

 He bore his misfortune with philosophic calmness, and 

 betaking himself to Berlin worked in Rose's laboratory 

 at mineral analysis. 



Next year he returned to Finland, and received the 

 Alexander stipend for a tour of study through Europe, 

 and obtained his degree of master and doctor. At this 

 " graduation " ceremony the Universities of Upsala and 

 Lund had a deputation that was received in a most cor- 

 dial manner, and Nordenskjold proposed a toast " to 

 our memories all, and to the time that has been and the 

 time that shall come, if only it does not bring Finland's 

 fall, a toast to the days of memory that have fled and the 

 hope that still remains.' This speech the tyrannical von 

 Berg regarded practically as high treason. Norden- 

 skjold treated the whole afifair with contempt, but had to 

 leave Finland and go to Sweden. The Russian Govern- 

 ment, moreover, deprived him of the right of ever holding 

 office in Helsingfors University. Further persecution 

 followed, and von Berg actually urged in the Senate, 

 Nordenskjiild's exile for having entered foreign service 

 without asking permission of the Russian Government. 

 After 1862, however, when von Berg's term of office had 

 expired, he was allowed to go to Finland whenever he 

 pleased. 



Nordenskjbld's first visit to the Polar regions was 

 with Torell to Spitsbergen in 1858, with whom he 

 went as geologist. At IJelle Sound he found Tertiary 

 fossil plants which formed the first of the extensive 

 geological collections brought home by subsequent 

 Swedish expeditions ; besides these he also obtained 

 fossils from the Carboniferous and Jurassic formations, 

 as well as fine minerals from the limestone veins on the 

 Norways, Cloven Cliff, &c On the death of Mosander, 

 after his return, he was appointed professor and director 

 of the Riks-Museum, Stockholm. It was because he 

 held this post that von Berg wished to have him de- 

 clared an exile. By means of energetically purchasing 

 and collecting, and in consequence of the extra- 

 ordinary richness of the Scandinavian peninsula in rare 

 and remarkable minerals, the Mineralogical Museum 

 at Stockholm, with help of the collections, valuable in 

 certain directions, which have existed from Mosander's 

 time, has in this way become one of the most consider- 

 able in Europe. In i860 his old friend J. J. Chydenius, 

 afterwards professor of chemistry at Helsingfors, joined 

 him as collaborateur, and they made many excursions 

 together. In i860 his mother died, but he was not per- 

 mitted to visit Finland even to bid her a last farewell. 

 In 1861 he again visited Spitsbergen with Torell, on 

 which occasion he had an opportunity of surveying the 

 northern part of that archipelago, clearing up the main 

 points of the geognosy of the country. This expedition 

 was the first foundation of a true knowledge of the 

 natural history of the Polar countries. In July 1S63 he 

 married Anna Mannerheim, a Fmnish lady, and aban- 

 doned all thoughts of further Arctic journeys. " Circum- 

 stances, however," he says, " so arranged themselves 

 that just from this time they were resumed by 

 me, and on a greater scale than before." In 1863 

 he was asked by the Royal Academy of Sciences of 

 Sweden to lead an expedition to Spitsbergen in the place 

 of K. Chydenius, who was ill. He asked Docent Duner 

 and Dr. Malmgren, of Lund, to join him. Starting in the 

 spring of 1864, he completed the preliminary part of the 

 survey for the arc of meridian, mapped the southern part 

 of Spitsbergen, and collected new data as to fauna and 

 flora. The sea was very free of ice ; but an attempt at 

 a high latitude was frustrated by meeting with seven 



NO. 1662, VOL. 64] 



boats with the crews of three wrecked walrus sloops, 

 which compelled immediate return to Norway. In 1867 

 he visited Paris, having been commissioned, along with 

 Prof A. P. Angstrom, to compare a normal metre and a 

 normal kilogram, which had been made for the Swedish 

 Government, with the prototypes preserved in the 

 Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. 



Through Count Ehrensvard, Governor of Gothenburg, 

 funds were raised, after several unsuccessful attempts, 

 from Dickson, Ekman, Carnegie, &c., for another Polar 

 expedition. State-Counsellor Count Platen, head of the 

 Marine Department, took a special interest in the plan, 

 and the iron steamer Sofia was placed at Nordenskjbld's 

 disposal by the Government. On September 19, 1868, 

 the Sofia attained the highest northern latitude which any 

 vessel can be proved to have attained in the old hemi- 

 sphere — namely, 8r 42' N. The name of Mr. Oscar 

 Dickson is always associated with that of Nordenskjold ; 

 it was he who had contributed most liberally to the expe- 

 dition of 1868, and Nordenskjold was overjoyed when 

 he voluntarily offered to equip another expedition to the 

 same region. It was determined that the new expedition 

 should have for its object to winter on the north-east 

 coast of Spitsbergen, in order thence to push northwards 

 in sledges on the ice. .After a long set of inquiries as 

 to whether dogs or reindeer should be used for draught 

 purposes, Nordenskjold decided upon reindeer. It was 

 also decided, with Mr. Dickson's consent, that 

 Nordenskjold should go to Greenland to investi- 

 gate the question of dogs, and this expedition 

 was extended into a scientific one, three young 

 Swedish men of science accompanying him. On this 

 occasion he made a long journey into the interior of 

 Greenland, almost equal in distance to that of Nansen 

 undertaken some years later. Of this journey Norden- 

 skjold says : " I had here an opportunity of clearing up 

 the nature of a formation which, during one of the latest 

 geological ages, covered a great part of the civilised 

 countries of Europe, and which, though it has given 

 occasion to an exceedingly comprehensive literature in 

 all cultivated languages, had never before been examined 

 bv any geologist." The same year, with some others, 

 Nordenskjold petitioned the Swedish Government to 

 form a colony in Spitsbergen to work its mineral 

 resources. This petition gave occasion for the Foreign 

 Minister of Sweden to inquire of the Powers of Europe 

 as to the annexation of Spitsbergen by Sweden. Russia 

 alone objected, and Spitsbergen remains to the present 

 day " No Man's Land." 



The long-prepared new Polar expedition finally started 

 in 1872. "The state of ice," says Nordenskjold, "on the 

 north coast of Spitsbergen was more unfavourable in 

 1872 than it had been at any time since the coast was 

 frequented by the Norwegians." The reindeer escaped 

 on the third day. The ship got frozen in on September 

 29, and the crews of six walrus sloops, which had also 

 been frozen in, depended on Nordenskjold for subsist- 

 ence. Thus Nordenskjold, instead of having twenty- 

 four mouths to feed, was confronted with the almost 

 insuperable problem of feeding 125. .Seventeen of the 

 walrus hunters, therefore, under the veteran Mathilas, 

 reached Cape Thorsdem by boat, 200 miles distant, 

 where they found all necessities at the quarters of the 

 Swedish colony. Fortunately, two vessels escaped 

 in November and took the crews of four vessels with 

 them ; but two men who remained died that winter. 

 Nothwithstanding all this, the expedition yielded im- 

 portant scientific results, not the least important being 

 the discovery of cosmic dust on the Polar ice. Extensive 

 journeys along the north coast and across the inland ice 

 of North-east Land were also made. In spite of the 

 heavy expenses incurred in this voyage, Mr. Oscar 

 Dickson declared that he was willing to "go on." 



During the next few years, with his help, Nordenskjold 



