CHAPTER XX. 
The Voyage Home—Christmas, 1879—Aden—Suez—Cairo—Excursion to 
the Pyramids and the Mokattam Mountains —Petrified Tree-stems—The 
Suez Canal—Landing on Sicily by night—Naples—Pome—The Members 
of the Expedition separate—Lisbon—England—Paris—Copenhagen— 
Festive Entry into Stockholm— FHes there—Conclusion. 
Duping our stay in Japan and our voyage thence to Ceylon I had 
endeavoured at least in some degree to preserve the character 
of the voyage of the Vega as a scientific expedition, an attempt 
which, considering the short time the Vega remained at each 
place, could not yield any very important results, and which 
besides was rendered difficult, though in a way that was 
agreeable and flattering to us, by I may almost say the tem¬ 
pestuous hospitality with which the Vega men were every¬ 
where received during their visits to the ports of Japan and 
East Asia. It was besides difficult to find any new untouched 
field of research in regions which were the seat of culture and 
civilisation long before the time when the forest began to be 
cut down and seed to be sown in the Scandinavian North, 
and which for centuries have formed the goal of exploratory 
expeditions from all the countries of Europe. I hope how¬ 
ever that the Vega will leave lasting memorials even of 
this part of her voyage through the contributions of Stux- 
berg, Nordquist, Kjellman, and Almquist to the evertebrate 
fauna and the sea-weed and lichen flora of East Asia, and by 
my collections of Japanese books, of fossil plants from Mogi 
and Labuan, &c. 
