ographical Society and famous Arctician and geographical writer,
CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, who did everything to make my stay in London as
pleasant and instructive as possible. Saturday was spent in paying
visits. On Easter Sunday Consul-General RICHTER gave a lunch in the
Continental Hotel, to which a considerable number of Scandinavians and
Englishmen were invited. The same evening we dined with the famous
Arctic traveller, Sir ALLEN YOUNG. On Monday we were invited by the Earl
of NORTHBROOK, President of the Geographical Society,[394] to his
country seat, Stratton, near Winchester. Here we saw the way--an
exceedingly quiet one--in which an English parliamentary election goes
on. The same day we paid a visit to Mr. SPOTTISWOODE, the President of
the Royal Society, at his magnificent country seat, in the neighbourhood
of London. Here I saw several instructive experiments with very large
machines for the production of light by electric discharges in highly
rarified air. Wednesday the 31st, grand dinner at the Swedish
minister's, and in the evening of the same day a Scandinavian _fete_ in
the Freemasons' Hall, at which there were great rejoicings according to
old northern usages.

[Illustration: THE OFFICERS OF THE "VEGA."
E. Bruzewitz.
G. Bove.
A. Hovgaard. ]

We started for Paris on the night before the 1st April. We went by
Boulogne-sur-Mer, whose Chamber of Commerce had invited us to a
_fete_ to celebrate the first landing of the _Vega_ men on the soil
of France after the North-east Passage was achieved. Several of the
authorities of the town and Dr. HAMY, a delegate from the
Geographical Society of Paris met us in the waiting-room at the
station. Here a breakfast had been arranged, in the course of which
we were presented to a number of eminent persons of the place, with
whom we afterwards passed the greater part of the day in the most
agreeable way. After making several excursions in the neighbourhood
of the town and paying the necessary official visits, we partook of
a festive dinner arranged by the municipality. From Boulogne we
travelled by night to Paris, arriving there on the 2nd April at
7 A.M.

Notwithstanding the early morning hour we were received here at the
station in a festive way by the Swedish-Norwegian minister and the
_personnel_ of the Legation, a deputation from the Geographical
Society of Paris, and a considerable number of the members of the
Scandinavian colony in the capital of France. The