INTRODUCTION. 
5 
The proposal to the Diet of 1878 was agreed to with that 
liberality which has always distinguished the representatives 
of the Swedish people when grants for scientific purposes have 
been asked for; which was also the case with a private motion 
made in the same Diet by the President, C. F. Wjern, member 
of the Academy of Sciences, whereby it was proposed to 
confer some further privileges on the undertaking. 
It is impossible here to give at length the decision of the 
Diet, and the correspondence which was exchanged with the 
authorities with reference to it. But I am under an obligation 
of gratitude to refer to the exceedingly pleasant reception I 
met with everywhere, in the course of these negotiations, 
from officials of all ranks, and to give a brief account of 
the privileges which the expedition finally came to enjoy, 
mainly owing to the letter of the Government to the Marine 
Department, dated the 14th June, 1878. 
Two officers and seventeen men of the Royal Swedish 
Navy having obtained permission to take part in the ex¬ 
pedition as volunteers, I was authorised to receive on account 
of the expedition from the treasury of the Navy, at Karls- 
krona—with the obligation of returning that portion of the 
funds which might not be required, and on giving approved 
security—full sea pay for two years for the officers, petty 
officers, and men taking part in the expedition; pay for the 
medical officer, at the Tate of 3,500 Swedish crowns a year, 
for the same time ; and subsistence money for the men belong¬ 
ing to the Navy, at the rate of one and a half Swedish crowns 
per man per day. The sum, by which the cost of provisions 
exceeded the amount calculated at this rate, was defrayed by 
the expedition, which likewise gave a considerable addition 
to the pay of the sailors belonging to the Navy. I further 
obtained permission to receive, on account of the expedition, 
from the Navy stores at Karlskrona, provisions, medicines, 
coal, oil, and other necessary equipment, under obligation to 
