1879.] Geography and Travels. 793 
unites the waters of the Arctic sea with those of the Pacific 
ocean is situated south of the Polar circle, or in about the same 
latitude as Haparanda On the western side the coast stretches 
out in a wide, treeless Tundra, while on the other side the forest 
boundary between the Lena and Behring strait extends in many 
places nearly to the coast. On the western side the coast lines 
are very incorrectly represented on the charts, so that we have 
sailed over a surface of nearly five hundred kilometres laid out as 
land on the latest maps of Siberia. But we have not been able 
to discover any considerable errors in the charts of the eastern 
coast.” 
On July 18th they were at last set free and entered Behring 
strait, and after stopping at Saint Lawrence bay, Port Clarence 
and Saint Lawrence island, they visited Behring island, where 
sufficient to constitute several almost perfect skeletons were 
obtained. On the 2d of September, 1879, the Vega arrived safely 
at Yokohama, Japan. 
While the north-east passage has thus been made successfully, 
it is doubtful whether the commercial results will be 
important. The time during which the channel thus shown to 
exist, remains open, it is to be feared is too brief, and the risks of 
navigation too great, to afford much encouragement to the mer- 
chants of San Francisco to open trade with Siberia, as suggested 
by M. Siberiakoff in a letter to the New York Herald, 
The commerce that was springing up on the western side from 
Europe, through the Sea of Kara to the Obi and Yenisei, has 
received a serious check this summer, as none of the six steamers 
attempting the voyage have been able to penetrate the ice which 
has obstructed the approaches to the Kara sea. 
Not the least remarkable incident in the voyage of the Vega was 
tne audience given the explorers by the Mikado of Japan and the 
honors paid them by the Tokio Geographical Society, the Asiatic 
Society of Japan and the General Asiatic Society ata banquet, at 
which the President of the Geographical Society, a prince of the 
imperial blood, presided. 
Petermann’s Mittheilungen for May, 1879, contains a valuable 
article, by M. Lindeman, on the north coast of Siberia, from the 
mouth of the Lena to Behring strait and is accompanied by 
an excellent and very detailed map in two sheets. An account of 
the authorities relied on, and the sources of information regard- 
ing this region used in preparing this map is given by the author, 
B. ” Hasentine, in the number for June. 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SECTION OF THE BRITISH 
-AssociaTion.—The British Association for the Advancement of 
Science held its forty-ninth meeting at Sheffield, from the 20th to 
> At the head of the Gulf of Bothnia.—Zaitfor. 
