32 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
Should the expedition again, as I hope, he able to reach 
Behring’s Straits with little hindrance, and thus in a com¬ 
paratively short time—-in that case indeed the time, which on 
the way can be devoted to researches in natural history, will be 
quite too short for solving many of the scientific questions I 
have mentioned. But without reckoning the world-historical 
navigation problem’ which will then be solved, extensive con¬ 
tributions of immense importance ought also to be obtainable 
regarding the geography, hydrography, zoology, and botany 
of the Siberian Polar Sea, and, beyond Behring’s Straits, the 
expedition will meet with other countries having a more 
luxuriant and varied nature, where other questions which 
perhaps concern us less, but are not on that account of less 
importance for science as a whole, will claim the attention 
of the observer and yield him a rich reward for his labour 
and pains. These are the considerations which formed the 
grounds for the arrangement of the plan of the expedition which 
is now in question. 
It is my intention to leave Sweden in the beginning of 
July, 1878, in a steamer, specially built for navigation among 
ice, which will be provisioned for two years at most, and 
which, besides a scientific staff of four or five persons, will 
have on board a naval officer, a physician, and at most eighteen 
men—petty officers and crew, preferably volunteers, from your 
Royal Majesty’s navy. Four walrus-hunters will also be hired 
in Norway. The course will be shaped at first to Matotschkin 
Sound, in Novaya Zemlya, where a favourable opportunity 
will be awaited for the passage of the Kara Sea. Afterwards 
the voyage will be continued to Port Dickson, at the mouth 
of the Yenisej, which I hope to be able to reach in the first 
half of August. As soon as circumstances permit, the 
expedition will continue its voyage from this point in the open 
channel which the river-water of the Obi and the Yenisej must 
indisputably form along the coast to Cape Chelyuskin, possibly 
with some short excursions towards the north-west in order 
to see whether any large island is to be found between the 
northern part of Novaya Zemlya and New Siberia. 
At Cape Chelyuskin the expedition will reach the only 
part of the proposed route which has not been traversed by 
some small vessel, and this place is perhaps rightly considered 
as that which it will be most difficult for a vessel to double 
during the whole north-east passage. As Prontschischev, in 
1736, in small river craft built with insufficient means reached 
within a few minutes of this north-westernmost promontory of 
