h in former times covered the
Scandinavian peninsula.

Few sciences perhaps will yield so important practical results as
meteorology is likely to do at some future date--a fact, or rather
an already partly realised expectation, which has won general
recognition, as is shown by the large sums which in all civilised
countries have been set apart for establishing meteorological
offices and for encouraging meteorological research. But the state
of the weather in a country is so dependent on the temperature,
wind, pressure of the air, etc., in very remote regions that the
laws of the meteorology of a country can only be ascertained by
comparing observations from the most distant regions. Several
international meteorological enterprises have already been started,
and we may almost consider the meteorological institutions of the
different countries as separate departments of one and the same
office, distributed over the whole world, through whose harmonious
co-operation the object in view shall one day be reached. But,
beyond the places for which daily series of observations may be
obtained, there are regions hundreds of square miles in extent from
which no observations, or only scattered ones, are yet to be had,
and here notwithstanding we have just the key to many meteorological
phenomena, otherwise difficult of explanation, within the civilised
countries of Europe. Such a meteorological territory, unknown, but
of the greatest importance, is formed by the Polar Sea lying to the
north of Siberia, and the land and islands there situated. It is of
great importance for the meteorology of Europe and of Sweden to
obtain trustworthy accounts of the distribution of the land, of the
state of the ice, the pressure of the air, and the temperature in
that in these respects little-known part of the globe, and the
Swedish expedition will here have a subject for investigation of
direct importance for our own country.

To a certain extent the same may be said of the contributions which
may be obtained from those regions to our knowledge of terrestrial
magnetism, of the aurora, etc. There are, besides, the examination
of the flora and fauna in those countries, hitherto unknown in this
respect, ethnographical researches, hydrographical work, etc.

I have of course only been able to notice shortly the scientific
questions which will meet the expedition during a stay of some
length on the north coast of Siberia, but what has been said may