Obituary — Baron Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskidld. 431 



Nordenskiold felt convinced that he could reach a much higher 

 latitude by wintering in Spitzbergen and utilizing sledges. 

 Accordingly he sailed thither in 1872 in the Polhem, accompanied 

 by two tenders. Unfavourable conditions of the ice rendered the 

 geographical results less important than he hoped ; but he discovered 

 fossil plants of great importance to the history of climatology during 

 former geological epochs. Moreover, with Lieutenant Palander, 

 now the Swedish Minister of Marine, he successfully surveyed part 

 of North-East Land, and in the following July the vessels were 

 extricated from their winter quarters at Mossel Bay, on the north 

 coast of Spitzbergen, and returned home richly laden with important 

 scientific collections. 



Nordenskiold now turned his attention to the exploration of 

 Siberian waters, and in 1875, following the pioneers Carlsen (1869) 

 and Wiggins (1874), he sailed through the Kara Sea to the Yenissei, 

 and ascended the river in a small boat, returning home overland. 

 In the following year, after a flying visit to the Philadelphia 

 Exhibition, he introduced merchandise by sea to Siberia, returning 

 in the autumn with his steamer by way of the Kara Sea and 

 Matotschkim Sound. These experiences gave Nordenskiold a 

 reasonable hope of accomplishing the North-East Passage, and 

 the King of Sweden, Mr. Oskar Dickson, and Mr. Sibiriakoff at 

 once lent their aid to the project. 



In July, 1878, Nordenskiold, with Palander as navigator, started 

 in the Vega, accompanied by two smaller ships. She was the first 

 vessel to double the most northern point of the Old World — Cape 

 Tchelyuskin. She wintered near Behring's Straits, and once more 

 free in July, 1879, reached Japan on September 2. After a triumphal 

 passage home around Asia and Europe, Nordenskiold was enthu- 

 siastically welcomed at Stockholm on April 24, 1880, and laden 

 with honours, being created Baron and appointed a Commander of 

 the "Nordstjerne Orden" (Order of the North Star). In 1883 

 Nordenskiold made his second voyage to Greenland, where he 

 investigated the inland ice, and succeeded in penetrating with a ship 

 through the dangerous ice-barrier along the east coast of that country 

 south of the Polar circle, a feat in vain attempted during three 

 hundred years by different Arctic expeditions. 



Thus, at the age of 51, he brought to a close a career of 

 exploration comparable in the magnitude of its results with that 

 of a Vasco di Gama or a Maghelhaens. But his intellectual activity 

 was by no means ended. His own explorations furnished material 

 for numerous books and memoirs, such as the account of his first 

 visit to Greenland in 1870 (see Geol. Mag., loc. cit.), "The 

 Voyage of the Vega round Asia" (1881), and the "Second Swedish 

 Expedition to Greenland" (1885). His professional work as Keeper 

 of the Mineralogical Division of the State Museum in Stockholm 

 led him to contribute many valuable papers to the publications of 

 the Academy of Science and various technical journals, as those in 

 which he described the new minerals Crookesite, Laxmannite, 

 Thaumasite, and Cleveite. Combined with his love of active 



