X 
AUTHOR’S PREFACE. 
of a sea-going vessel, and conduce to dissipate a prejudice 
which for centuries has kept the most extensive cultivable 
territory on the globe shut out from the great Oceans of 
the World. 
The work is furnished with numerous maps and illustrations, 
and is provided with accurate references to sources of geogra¬ 
phical information. For this I am indebted both to the liberal 
conception which my publisher, Herr Frans Beijep, formed 
of the way in which the work should be executed, and the 
assistance I have received while it was passing through the 
press from Herr E. W. Hahlgren, amanuensis at the Royal 
Library, for which it is a pleasant duty publicly to offer 
them my hearty thanks. 
A. E. NORDENSKIOLD. 
Stockholm, Uh October, 1881. 
