Rust ge ik % ie RA a 
310 
Nordenskjéld, however, did not long hold these appoint- 
ments, having incurred the wrath of von Berg, the governor 
of Finland, for being present at a dinner at which, with the 
thoughtlessness of youth, there was some liberal talk and 
free singing. This was in November 1855, and Norden- 
skjéld resulved to take advantage of his rustication to 
travel. He went to Berlin, where he stayed during the 
spring and early summer of 1854, working in Rose’s 
laboratory at researches in mineral analysis. Returning 
to Finland the same year, he had hoped to obtain a 
travelling scholarship, meaning to devote himself to 
Siberia, but was disappointed. He, however, obtained a 
stipend for a line of study through Europe in 1857. 
Before leaving he attended the Promotion Festival of 
that year, where he was to take his Master’s and Doctor’s 
degrees. At the Festival there was more liberal talk, 
which von Berg construed into “high treason,” and 
Nordenskjéld thought it advisable to leave Finland for a 
time. He crossed over to Sweden, where he ultimately 
became naturalised, and rose'to eminence both in public 
life and as a worker in science. Since 1862, however, 
Nordenskjéld had been allowed to go to Finland as often 
as he pleased, and would have been, in 1867, appointed 
Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Helsingfors, 
had he been able to promise to abjure politics, which he 
could not do entirely. By this time (July 1, 1863) he had 
married a Finnish lady (Anna Mannesheim, daughter of 
ex-President Count Carl Mannesheim). In 1858 Norden- 
skjéld took part in the first expedition to Spitzbergen, 
organised by Sorell, the head of the Swedish Geological 
Survey. To these and other voyages of Nordenskjéld 
we referred at some length in vol. xx. pp. 606, 631, and 
further details will be found in Mr. Leslie’s ‘‘ Arctic 
Voyage of A. E. Nordenskjéld,” published by Macmillan 
and Co. in 1879, to which we are mainly indebted for the 
details of the present article. On his return from this 
voyage in the autumn of 1858 Nordenskjéld was ap- 
pointed successor to Mosander in the Mineralogical 
department of the Riks Museum at Stockholm. Mean- 
time he had been engaged mainly in the practical study 
of the mineralogy of Scandinavia. 
“ Immediately after my return to Stockholm I entered 
on my new employment and began to work partly at the 
arrangement of the museum, partly at scientific researches 
which formed the subjects of several of my papers pub- 
lished either in the Transactions of the Academy of 
Sciences or of the Geological Society. At Prof. Mosan- 
der’s death, when the rebuilding of the Academy’s house 
had just begun, the mineralogical collection was stuffed 
into three small rooms, where there was so little space 
that the exhibition of the collection could not be thought 
of, The new spacious apartments intended for the Riks 
Museum were finished in the summer of 1865, and already 
by the following autumn the arrangement and removal of 
the collections were so far advanced that the Museum 
could be opened to the public. It has since been my 
constant endeavour to enlarge the collection not only by 
purchases from dealers in minerals, but mainly by visits 
to the most important mineral localities in Scandinavia, 
undertaken on account of the Museum, partly by the 
Intendent himself, pirtly by Assistant Lindstr6 n, or by 
students of mineralogy fron the Universities. In conse- 
quence of the extraordinary richness of the Scandinavian 
peninsula in rare and remarkable minerals, the Minera- 
logical Museum at Stockholm, with the help of the col- 
lections, valuable in certain directions, which have existed 
from Mosander’s time, has in this way become one of the 
most considerable in Europe.” , 
investigations on the formation of sea-ice. 
another expedition was made to Spitzbergen in connection 
with the measurement of an arc of meridian, and in the 
following year he was busy with further mineralogical 
investigations both in Sweden and Finland. 
agreeable change came in the form of a visit to Paris in 
(Fed. 2, 1882 
Nordenskjéld still continued to travel in search of 
minerals through various parts of Sweden and Norway. 
In 1861 he took part in another expedition to Spitzbergen 
under Torell, and in December, 1862, he crossed on the 
ice from Sweden to Finland, in order to make some 
In 1864 
In 1867 an 
connection with the Metric Commission, and the Exhibi- 
tion of that year gave Nordenskjéld an opportunity of 
making the acquaintance of many eminent men of science. 
In the summer of 1868 Nordenskjéld found himself at the 
head of an expedition on a much larger scale than any of 
his previous ones, and partly fitted out at the Government 
expense. 
brought home, and they reached the highest northern 
latitude which any vessel could be proved to have 
attained in the old hemisphere at that time. 
contributors to this expedition was Mr. Oscar Dickson of 
Rich and important scientific collections were 
Among the 
Gothenburg, whose name is inseparably connected with 
Nordenskjéld’s Arctic researches, and who has continued 
ever since to contribute to his expeditions with unprece- 
dented liberality. Mr. Dickson, as is evident from his 
name, is of British origin, his father having been a native 
of Scotland who many years ago settled in Sweden, 
Previous to and preparatory for his next éxpedition, 
Nordenskjéld in 1870 visited Greenland, in company 
with Dr. Berggren, with results of the greatest value ; 
some of which he refers to as follows :— 
“The collection of new contributions to the flora of 
the Polar countries during several preceding geological 
periods of special importance for a knowledge of the 
history of the development of our globe. The discovery 
in the Miocene basaltic strata of Greenland at Ovifak, on 
the island Diské, of the largest known blocks of meteoric 
iron, regarding the origin of which an extensive scientific 
controversy has arisen, and which perhaps will at some 
future time form the starting point for quite a new theory 
of the method of formation of the heavenly body we 
inhabit. The large blocks were brought home the follow- 
ing year by two vessels of war which were sent out to 
Greenland for that purpose by the Swedish Government, 
under the command of Baron yon Otter. 
“ Anexcursion of some length was made into the wil- 
derness of ice, everywhere full of bottomless clefts, which 
occupies the interior of Greenland, and which, if I except 
unimportant wanderings along the edge and an incon- 
siderable attempt in the same direction in the year 1728, 
by the Dane Dalager, was now, for the first time, trodden 
by human foot. 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 occa- 
sion to an exceedingly comprehensive literature in all 
cultivated languages, Had never before been examined by 
any geologist. The equipment for the journey was ex- 
ceedingly defective, because everybody with whom I con- 
versed who had any knowledge of the circumstances, 
declared to me that such a journey was impracticable, 
and that in consequence my preparations were thrown 
away. It was on this account that I was compelled to 
return earlier than would otherwise have been the case.” 
