AUTHOK’S PREFACE. 
In the work now published I have, along with the sketch of 
the voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, of the natural 
conditions of the north coast of Siberia, of the animal and 
vegetable life prevailing there, and of the peoples with whom 
we came in contact in the course of our journey, endeavoured 
to give a review, as complete as space permitted, of previous 
exploratory voyages to the Asiatic Polar Sea. It would have 
been very ungrateful on my part if I had not referred at 
some length to our predecessors, who with indescribable 
struggles and difficulties—and generally with the sacrifice of 
health and life—paved the way along which we advanced, 
made possible the victory we achieved. In this way besides 
the work itself has gained a much-needed variety, for nearly 
all the narratives of the older North-East voyages contain in 
abundance what a sketch of our adventures has not to offer; 
for many readers perhaps expect to find in a book such as 
this accounts of dangers and misfortunes of a thousand sorts 
by land and sea. May the contrast which thus becomes 
apparent between the difficulties our predecessors had to 
contend with and those which the Vega met with during 
her voyage incite to new exploratory expeditions to the sea, 
which now, for the first time, has been ploughed by the keel 
