INTKODUCTION. 
31 
Few sciences perhaps will yield so important practical results 
as meteorology is likely to do at some future date—a fact, or 
rather an already partly realised expectation, which has won 
general recognition, as is shown by the large sums which in 
all civilised countries have been set apart for establishing 
meteorological offices and for encouraging meteorological re¬ 
search. But the state of the weather in a country is so 
dependent on the temperature, wind, pressure of the air, etc., 
in very remote regions that the laws of the meteorology of a 
country can only be ascertained by comparing observations from 
the most distant regions. Several international meteorological 
enterprises have already been started, and we may almost con¬ 
sider the meteorological institutions of the different countries as 
separate departments of one and the same office, distributed over 
the whole world, through whose harmonious co-operation the 
object in view shall one day be reached. But, beyond the places 
for which daily series of observations may be obtained, there are 
regions hundreds of square miles in extent from which no 
observations, or only scattered ones, are yet to be had, and here 
notwithstanding we have just the key to many meteorological 
phenomena, otherwise difficult of explanation, within the civilised 
countries of Europe. Such a meteorological territory, unknown, 
but of the greatest importance, is formed by the Polar Sea lying 
to the north of Siberia, and the land and islands there situated. 
It is of great importance for the meteorology of Europe and of 
Sweden to obtain trustworthy accounts of the distribution of the 
land, of the state of the ice, the pressure of the air, and the 
temperature in that in these respects little-known part of the 
globe, and the Swedish expedition will here have a subject for 
investigation of direct importance for our own country. 
To a certain extent the same may be said of the contributions 
which may be obtained from those regions to our knowledge 
of terrestrial magnetism, of the aurora, etc. There are, besides, 
the examination of the flora and fauna in those countries, 
hitherto unknown in this respect, ethnographical researches, 
hydrographical work, etc. 
I have of course only been able to notice shortly the scientific 
questions which will meet the expedition during a stay of some 
length on the north coast of Siberia, but what has been said 
may perhaps be sufficient to show that the expedition, even 
if its geographical objects were not attained, ought to be a 
worthy continuation of similar enterprises which have been set 
on foot in this country, and which have brought gain to science 
and honour to Sweden. 
