Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. Vol. 13, no. 3.

Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. Vol. 13, no. 3. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/128 (page 152)
    sive of the present year’s undertaking, no less than three * separate expeditions have been sent out from this country to the arctic seas. When Nordenskiold last winter again brought forward a proposal for a new expedition, on a different plan, which was to set out in the autumn from the northern coast of Spitzbergen and penetrate farther northward, the means requisite to defray the expenses of the expedition were in a few days raised in the second city of Sweden, Goteborg [Gottenburg], at the instance of the resident governor, Count Ehrensvard. When, moreover, the Government, in order to assist the undertaking, fitted out and manned the steam- ship Sofia, well adapted for the purpose, strongly built of Swedish iron, and originally intended to carry the mails over the Baltic in winter, the new expedition was enabled to assume a more extensive character and embrace a wider compass than had originally been intended. Most expeditions of this kind have had for their object to attain as high a degree of north latitude as possible ; but a glance at their history will convince us how difficult and uncertain the attainment of this object is, and how frequently an insignificant circumstance has obliged the, in other respects, best planned expeditions to return without any scientific result whatever,—a contingency which there would have been no reason to apprehend if proper care had been taken in the scientific furnishing and manning of the expe- dition. In order to remove all fear of the new Swedish expedition * These were the following:— The Expedition of 1858, fitted out at the expense of Otto Torell. The following gentlemen took part in the undertaking: O. Torell, A. E. Nordenskiold, A. Qvenuer- stedt. The Expedition visited the western coast of Spitzbergen, and brought home considerable zoological and geological collections. The Expedition of 1861, fitted out at the public expense. The gentlemen who took part in the expedition, besides the proposer and chief, 0. Torell, were A. von Goes, A. T. Malmgren, F. A. Smitt, G. von Yhlen, zoologists and botanists ; B. Lilliebodk and W. Kuglenstjerna, commanders of the vessels ; C- W. Blomstrand, C. Chydenius, N. Duner and A. E. Nordenskiold for geological and physical in- vestigations. The expedition visited, in both vessels, the western and northern coasts of Spitzbergen, made extensive journeys in boats for the purpose of con- structing a topographical and geological map of the group of islands, and of examining the northern part of the triangulation for degree-measuring, which the present President of the Royal Society, General E. Sabine, as early as 1826, pro- posed to get executed, in these high northern regions, and lastly brought home with them a collection of materials for studying the fauna, flora, and geology of the islands, probably not surpassed in completeness by any similar collections from districts situated at so great a distance from the centres of civilisation. The Expedition of 1864, fitted out at the public expense, chiefly for the purpose of continuing the survey for the measurement of the degree. The gentlemen who took part in the undertaking were A. E. Nordenskiold, chief, N. Duner and A. J. Malmgren. The expedition visited the southern part of Spitzbergen and Storfjord, completed the survey for the degree-measuring, and brought home rich geological, zoological and botanical collections.