famous Madagascar
traveller, GRANDIDIER, President of the Geographical Society's
Central Committee, welcomed us, with lively expressions of assent
from the surrounding crowd. We were invited during our stay in the
city to live with our countryman, A. NOBEL, in a very comfortable
villa belonging to him, Rue Malakoff, No. 53, and I cannot
sufficiently commend the liberal way in which he here discharged the
duties of a host and assisted us during our stay in Paris, which,
though very agreeable and honouring to us, demanded an extraordinary
amount of exertion.

Our reception in Paris was magnificent, and it appeared as if the
metropolis of the world wished to show by the way in which she
honoured a feat of navigation that it is not without reason that she
bears on her shield a vessel surrounded by swelling billows. It is a
pleasant duty for me here to offer my thanks for all the goodwill
we, during those memorable days, enjoyed on the part of the
President of the Republic, of Admiral LA RONCIERE LE NOURY,
President of the Geographical Society, his colleague, M. HECHT, M.
MAUNOIR, the Secretary of the Society, M. QUATREFAGE, and M.
DAUBREE, members of the Institute, not to forget many other
Frenchmen and Scandinavians. Among the _fetes_ of Paris I must
confine myself to an enumeration of the principal ones.

Friday, the 2nd April. Public _seance de reception_ by the Geographical
Society in the Cirque des Champs Elysee in the presence of a very large
and select audience. Admiral La Ronciere delivered the speech on this
occasion, which I replied to by giving a pretty full account of the
Swedish Arctic expeditions, on which the President handed me the large
gold medal of the Society "as a proof of the interest which the public
and the geographers of France take in the voyage of the _Vega_." Dined
the same day with the Swedish-Norwegian minister, SIBBERN.--Saturday the
3rd. Invitation to a festive meeting of delegates from twenty-eight
learned societies in France in the amphitheatre of the Sorbonne.[395] We
were greeted by the Minister of Education in a masterly and eloquent
speech, after which he conferred upon us, on the part of the Republic,
Commander's and Officer's Insignia of the French Legion of Honour. "A
reward," as the Minister of the _Republic_ expressed himself, "for the
blood of the brave and the sleepless nights of the learned." After that
an official dinner and reception by M. Jules Ferry.--On Sunday the 4th,
a