and northern animals of the
chase is never spoken of, and finally that every particular which is
noted is in conflict with the known geographical, climatal, and
natural conditions of the Arctic seas. All these narratives
therefore can be proved to be fictitious, and to have been invented
by persons who never made any voyages in the true Polar Seas.

The _Vega_ is thus the first vessel that has penetrated by the north
from one of the great world-oceans to the other.

[Footnote 289: I quote this because the movement of the tides is
still, in our own time, made use of to determine whether certain
parts of the Polar seas are connected with each other or not. ]

[Footnote 290: Marco Polo, in 1271, at the age of seventeen or
eighteen, accompanied his father Nicolo, and his uncle Maffeo Polo,
to High Asia. He remained there until 1295 and during that time came
into great favor with Kubla Khan, who employed him, among other
things, in a great number of important public commissions, whereby
he became well acquainted with the widely extended lands which lay
under the sceptre of that ruler. After his return home he caused a
great sensation by the riches he brought with him, which procured
him the name _il Millione_, a name however which, according to
others, was an expression of the doubts that were long entertained
regarding the truthfulness of his, as we now know, mainly true
accounts of the number of the people and the abundance of wealth in
Kublai Khan's lands. "Il Millione," in the meantime, became a
popular carnival character, whose cue was to relate as many and as
wonderful "yarns" as possible, and in his narratives to deal
preferably with millions. It is possible that the predecessor of
Columbus might have descended to posterity merely as the original
of this character if he had not, soon after his return home, taken
part in a war against Genoa, in the course of which he was taken
prisoner, and, during his imprisonment, related his recollections of
his travels to a fellow-prisoner, who committed them to writing, in
what language is still uncertain. The work attracted great attention
and was soon spread, first in written copies, then by the press in a
large number of different languages. It has not been translated into
Swedish, but in the Royal Library in Stockholm there is a very
important and hitherto little known manuscript of it from the middle
of the fourteenth century, of which an edition is in course of
publica