as search vessels, explorers, and whaling-ships added, here a little and there a little, to the maps that already existed. Other nations, too, pressed forward to share the adventure which formerly had been almost monopolized by England. Swedes, Norwegians, Germans and Italians, all sent their flotillas, and all obtained a certain measure of success Each gallant band added to the general stock of knowledge, and threw their carefully obtained experience as a contribution on to the rapidly accumulating cairn. It was under these circumstances that the English expedition of 1875 set forth. The orders of Sir George Nares were to reach the Pole, and the expedition was more costly and complete than any which had ever previously been equipped. The adventurers returned, after an absence of sixteen months, with a hardly-earned reputation for heroism, and with the cordial applause of their countrymen. Though they failed to reach the Pole, they approached nearer to it than was ever done before, and the voyage of Nares and Stephenson seems to have set the practicability of reaching it at rest.

We have now given a rapid sketch of the field of Arctic exploration, in which Professor Nordenskiöld was destined to take so high a place. From very early youth Nordenskiöld threw himself with energy into the task of exploration. Mr. Leslie's book gives us the records of nine expeditions in which he was either the leader or occupied a prominent place. The first was as early as 1858. and the last of the series was the successful North-East passage of last year. His first expeditions, though aiming at results valuable to science, were not of a character to excite world-wide attention. For many years he devoted time and energy to the completion of the survey of Spitzbergen. Though the usual ice-perils had to be encountered, they were not usually of a character which proves fatal to well-appointed expeditions. He enriched geology, botany, and geodesy with numerous details; he investigated with industry and success the inland glaciers of Greenland; and though he made no new discoveries, he gradually amassed an experience of Arctic navigation which has rarely been surpassed. Three or four years ago Nordenskiöld became tired of the comparatively narrow limits of Spitzbergen and its islands. He determined to strike out a new line. An open North-West passage had been tried for in vain. He would search for and give to the world a North-East passage.

His idea was to coast the northern shores of Siberia, instead of losing his time, and possibly his ships, among the Parry Islands. No ship from the west had ever sailed eastward round Cape Chelyuskin. But Norsdenskiöld believed that it could be done, and he has carried his belief into execution.

A few words will not be out of place on the personal history of the man who has thus been crowned by success. An autobiographical sketch, published in Bejer's Swedish Biographical Lexicon," is reprinted in Mr. Leslie's book, of which we find it by far

the most amusing part. Born at Helsingfors, the capital of Fin land, in 1832, Nordenskiöld seems to have fitted in but indifferently with his surroundings. Proud of the ancient independence of his country, he appears to have grown up in a state of more or less active antagonism to the Russian dominion. We have no direct notice of politics in Professor Nordenskiöld's autobiographical sketch, except the record given in a half-amused tone of several boyish "scrapes," which, as we infer, were the real reasons of his ultimately taking service with Sweden. We can hardly wonder at this attitude of mind, when we remember the position of his native country on the cession of the Grand Duchy to Russia. The ancient constitution of Finland was preserved to her by the special grant of Alexander I. This reservation was confirmed by the late Emperor Nicholas and the present Sovereign. The right of legislation and of general taxation is nominally in the hands of a national parliament, but in reality it is exercised by a senate appointed by "the Emperor Grand Duke." In 1812 a Russian Governor-General of Finland was appointed by imperial ukase, and in him the whole executive power is vested as representing the Sovereign. It was therefore, not only probable, but certain, that the high spirited youths of a country formerly free, and intensely proud of their freedom, would feel the peculiar paternal supervision of a Governor-General accustomed to the iron system of Russia, as an intolerable grievance ; nor can Englishmen fail to sympathize deeply with this attitude of mind. Read by the light of this explanation-for which, as usual, the reader is not indebted to Mr. Leslie-the autobiographical sketch of Professor Nordenskiöld is interesting, not only as a record of his own youth, but as an unconsciously vivid picture of the state of affairs in Finland in his college days. He came of a family devoted for generations to mineralogy and natural history. His father, Nils Gustaf, well known as a mineralogist, was a government inspector of mines in his native country, and at the time of his death, in 1866, was a Councilor of State, and head of the mining department. The childhood of Adolph Erik was passed at a country mansion called Frugord, situated in a forest-crowned valley in the department of Nyland in Finland. Life in his home is described as being modelled much on the old Norse type, and the Councillor impressed his own very strong character and individuality on all around him. Books and natural-history collections accumulated at Frugors, and Adolf when a boy was allowed to accompany his father on his tours as a mining inspector. This, and the office which was very early assigned to him, of curator of the large collections of minerals and insects belonging to his family, gave young Adolf from his earliest years that keen eye as a mineralogist which laid the foundation of his after success.

In 1849 Adolf Nordenskiöld entered the University of Helsingfors, where he devoted himself to the study of chemistry, natural history,

mathematics, and physics—above all, to mineralogy and geology. After taking his degree he remained at his University studying hard, and also, it would appear, mixing himself up with politics in a manner which somewhat embroiled him with the authorities. All his life, or at least the greater part of it, appears to have been affected by the events of that time. Nordenskiöld was in constant hot water. There is no indiscretion in thus discussing a man still living and flourishing among us, for he tells us all about it in his autobiography with most amusing naïveté. It is foreign to our present purpose to give an account of the various "scrapes" in which he was involved with the authorities. Suffice it to say that in consequence of a patriotic toast which he gave at a supper party in 1857, he was deprived by Count Von Berg, the Russian GovernorGeneral, of a small post he held in the Museum, and likewise of the right of ever holding office in the University.

It is from the time of this supper party, 1857, that Nordenskiöld's Arctic exploration begins to date.

In our general sketch of Arctic Exploration, we omitted all mention of that part of the shores of the Arctic Ocean which lies northward of the two Siberias. It is along that coast that Nordenskiöld's great voyage has been made; and we felt that the proper place to look at the northern shores of Siberia as a whole would be when we

came to Nordenskiöld's successful voyage along them. In doing so we do not propose to follow Mr. Leslie. We shall go rather to the narrative of Lieutenant Palander, the Naval Commander of the Expedition, and to the Memoir of Professor Nordenskiöld himself, which we use or paraphrase as occasion serves.

The expedition which sailed from Gottenburg on the 4th of July, 1878, achieved a success which has been attempted in vain during three centuries. For the first time a ship has sailed round Cape Chelyuskin, and emerged after coasting along the whole extent of the Siberian shores, by Behring Strait. The Kara Sea, which is reached immediately after passing Novaya Zemlya, has long been supposed to oppose an impassable barrier to the navigator. But the Norwegians have the credit of discovering that the sole secret of overcoming this difficult obstacle lay in choosing the right season of the year for the attempt. Carlsen, a Swedish whaling captain, sailed in 1869 across the Kara Sea to the mouth of the Obi River, and returned by way of the Matotschkin Shan,* a tortuous and landlocked channel, running east and west, which divides Novaya Zemlya in twain. Since that time the Kara Sea has annually been frequented by the Norwegian fishermen.

When in 1878 Nordenskiöld started for his successful exploration, he was already a past-master in Arctic navigation. He had served in six Arctic expeditions, besides sledging journeys and a land

* The name of this strait is spelt in a dozen different ways. We follow Professor Nordenskiöld.

exploration of Greenland. His two last voyages, namely, those to the Obi and Yenissei rivers in 1875 and 1876, clearly showed him that the attempt to pass the last remaining obstacle, Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost point of the old world continents, could be successfully made. The success which attended the voyage of 1878 was therefore no mere lucky chance, but the result of well-considered and deeply thought-out plans.

Nordenskiöld tells us, in his Memoir to the King of Sweden, the degree of importance which he himself attaches to his exploit. As a generally available route for the commerce of the world, the North-East passage could never have any great importance, even if no obstacle was offered to its free navigation by ice. Before the opening of the Suez Canal it would have been important-since then it does not offer any great advantages to general commerce; its real and main importance lies in the outlet which it affords to the northern coasts of Europe and Asia.

The great Siberian rivers, as he points out, run north into the Arctic Sea. Their upper waters lie, in each instance, through forest lands and districts of great agricultural value. They form natural navigable canals, and place the interior of Asia and of Siberia in communication with the icy sea. The lands they drain have little access to the rest of the world. The routes thither are so difficult that no commerce with them has been possible. It is therefore difficult to overrate the importance of water communication between the gulfs at the mouths of the Obi and of the Yenissei, with the Atlantic on one side and the lower waters of the Lena with the Pacific on the other.

Des relations maritimes utilisables," he writes, "entre les golfes d'embouchure de l'Obi-Jéniséj et l'Atlantique d'un côté, entre l'issue de la Léna ct le Pacifique de l'autre, ouvrent la moitié d'une partie du monde au commerce, rendent possible l'exportation de produits agricoles, forestiers et de ferme, d'immenses régions remarquables par leur fertilité, et donnent par ce fait à leurs habitants les moyens d'échanger les productious de leur sol contre les produits industriels de l'Europe et de l'Amérique, ces conditions d'aisance et de bien-être actuellement nécessaires au plus pauvre individu de la race Européenne. 11 sera toujours difficile d'introduire, sur une grande échelle par une autre voie, jusqu'au cœur de la Sibérie, les machines pesantes, engins agricoles, bateaux à vapeur, etc., qui constituent, de nos jours, les leviers de la civilisation d'un pays."

Before starting on his voyage, Nordenskiöld, in addition to the practical trial trips we have mentioned, made himself thoroughly acquainted with the history of previous attempts. He himself explored the route as far as the mouths of the Obi and Yenissei, and he tells us that a century and a half ago a few attempts had been made by the Russians. The northern extremity of Asia was discovered by a land-sledge journey by Lieutenant Chelyuskin in 1742, and the cape received his name. Though the Cape had never been doubled by a ship, Nordenskiöld found nothing in previous accounts to make him despair of accomplishing the task. He found

that to the east of Cape Chelyuskin the Russians had made several expeditions, starting from the Lena, on which river their vessels were built. In one of them, that of 1835, the leader, Lieutenant Prontschicheff, and his young wife who accompanied him, lost their lives in winter quarters from scurvy. Attempts to round Cape Chelyuskin had been as unsuccessful from the east as from the

west.

It was different with regard to the country between the Lena and Behring Strait. Here numerous explorers had passed. The coast had been, in part at least, surveyed by land, and ships had visited the islands near the shores..

Nordenskiöld then came to the conclusion that where failure had occurred, it was owing rather to the imperfections of the vessels employed than to insuperable difficulties offered by the ice; and his final conclusion was that a well-found steamer would penetrate where sailing vessels had failed. It is not our intention to follow Professor Nordenskiöld at any length in his adventures. They were the usual incidents of an Arctic voyage, and as the autumn closed in there were the usual hopes and fears as to the possibility of reaching navigable water before the vessel should be finally frozen in. The "Lena," a small vessel destined for service on the river of that name, acted as tender, and was usually sent forward to explore and sound for a passage. The Kara Sea was passed without difficulty, and on the 19th of August the Old World's most northerly cape, Chelyuskin, was rounded, "the Vega,' as Lieutenant Palander reminds us, being the first vessel which has succeeded in so doing. At 6 P. M. we anchored in a creek on the eastern side of the above cape. The national flag was hoisted and a salute given; while on the shore stood a large Polar bear to bid us welcome. That night and the following forenoon were employed in deciding the position of the cape, which was found to be lat. 77° 36', long. E. 103° 15'."

66

On the morning of the 28th September the task was almost accomplished; only 120 miles separated the "Vega" from Behring Strait. The four thousand miles which constitute the length of the Old World's northern shores had been performed with that exception. But though a change of weather might in a moment have released them, the cold increased, the new ice formed daily stronger around them, and they were compelled to defer the remainder of their journey till the following year.

It will be seen that, as a journey of Arctic adventure, the voyage was not particularly remarkable. Nordenskiöld himself had a hundred times faced greater difficulties. The main interest lies in the fact that he was a pioneer of a new route, and the performer of an enterprise hitherto unaccomplished.

The route round Cape Chelyuskin throws light on several scientific questions that were in debate. Before Nordenskiöld's voyage