9 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
It was natural that I should endeavour to. take advantage 
of the opportunity for making new and important discoveries 
which thus presented itself An opportunity had arisen for 
solving a geographical problem—the forcing a north-east passage 
to China and Japan—which for more than three hundred years 
had been a subject of competition between the world’s fore¬ 
most commercial states and most daring navigators, and which, 
if we view it in the light of a circumnavigation of the old world, 
had, for thousands of years back, been an object of desire for 
geographers. I determined, therefore, at first to make use, for 
this purpose, of the funds which Mr. A. Sibiriakoff, after my 
return from the expedition of 1876, placed at my disposal for 
the continuation of researches in the Siberian Polar Sea. For 
a voyage of the extent now contemplated, this sum, however, 
was quite insufficient On this account I turned to His Majesty 
the King of Sweden and Norway, with the inquiry whether any 
assistance in making preparations for the projected expedition 
might be reckoned upon from the public funds. King Oscar, 
who, already as Crown Prince, had given a large contribution 
to the Torell expedition of 1861, immediately received my pro¬ 
posal with special warmth, and promised within a short time 
to invite the Swedish members of the Yenisej expeditions and 
others interested in our voyages of exploration in the north, to 
meet him for the purpose of consultation, asking me at the 
same time to be prepared against the meeting with a complete 
exposition of the reasons on w^hich I grounded my views^— 
differing so widely from the ideas commonly entertained—of 
the state of the ice in the sea off the north coast of Siberia. 
This assembly took place at the palace in Stockholm, on 
the 26th January, 1877, which may be considered the birth¬ 
day of the Vega Expedition, and was ushered in by a dinner, to 
which a large number of persons were invited, among whom were 
the members of the Swedish royal house that happened to be 
then in Stockholm; Prince John of Glucksburg ; Dr. Oscar 
