Professor Nordenskiold having explored Spitzbergen, decided to push eastwards through the Kara Sea, and left Tromsoe in the Proeven, in June, 1875. In the following month he sailed through the Matyushin Shar in Nova Zembla, to the mouth of the Yenesei, on the north side of which the Swedish flag was hoisted on the 15th of August. In 1876 the Professor made a second voyage to the Yenesei in a small steamer, the Ymer, returning to Tromsoe on the 22nd of September. The now famous Vega, accompanied by the Lena, started from Tromsoe on the 21st of July, 1878, and, sailing through Magertie Sound, safely doubled the nor thernmost point of the Old World—Cape Chelyusldn, or North-East Cape. On the night of the 27th of August the Lena left for Fadayev. The Vega, steering still east, was so beset by the ice, that Nordenskiold was forced to winter on the Siberian coast, near Sardre Kamen, only 130 miles from the northern entrance of Behring's Strait. After a deten tion of 294 days—from the 28th of September, 1878, to the 18th of July, 1879—the Vega resumed her voyage, entering Behring's Strait on the 20th of July. " Now at last the goal was reached for which so many nations had striven, ever since Sir Hugh Willoughby, on the 20th May, 1553, sailed from Greenwich in command of three vessels—the Esperanza, Edward Bonadventure, and Bona Confidentia—upon a voy age of discovery in the North Sea. Many other expeditions from different countries have started on the same errand, always without success, and often with the loss of ships and many brave sailors. After the lapse of 326 years, and after the most experienced seafaring men had declared the undertaking to be an impossibility, the North-East Passage has at last been accomplished without the loss of a single life, without a _case of sickness amongst those who shared in the enterprise, and without the slightest damage to the vesseL It was also effected under circumstances which prove that the feat can be repeated in most years, perhaps every year, and within the space of a few weeks."' On the 22nd
of July the Vega dropped anchor in Port Clarence, on the eastern side of Behring's Strait. After visiting St. Lawrence and Behring Islands, all sail was made for Japan ; and on the 2nd of September the Vega anchored in the roadstead of Yokohama, whence she returned to Europe.
"4. Further explorations are necessary in order to decide on the possibility of opening out commercial maritime relations between the mouth of the Lena and the Pacific. The experience acquired by the expedition shows that it is possible to bring by this route from the Pacific into the basin of the Lena, steam vessels, heavy engines, and other articles which cannot be conveniently transported on sledges or by wheel conveyance." Of the minor expeditions, most important results have been gained by the gallant Dutch explorers on board the Willem Barents, a small sailing-vessel which has thrice (1878-79-80) visited the north-eastern seas. The Bennett Expedition to the Arctic regions left San Francisco on the 8th July, in the Jeanette. Nothing has yet (Jan. 1881) been heard of the vessel, but little anxiety is felt for its safety. During thp summer of 1879 the cutter labj6rn, with Sir Henry Gore Booth and Captain A. H. Markham, pushed north between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, as far as 70° 24'—only 80 miles from Franz Joseph Land. Last year (1880) Mr. Leigh Smith, in a steam-yacht, the Eira, reached and explored the south-western coasts of Franz Joseph Land. Having taken his vessel as far as 80° 20' N. lat., he returned, and arrived safely at Peterhead on the 12th of October.]