done. The conquest of the dreaded sea was complete. Men no longer fear to enter it with good steamers in the month of August; for probably not a season passes in which it is not open during that month. A speedy passage, and return without delay, are the prime requisites.

IV. ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE.

We have doubtless seen enough of the famous explorer to be aware that perseverance and thoroughness are characteristic of all his endeavors. Spitzbergen was not deserted by him even temporarily until the researches of six summers and a winter had despoiled it of its mysteries. And, step by step, he now prepares to trace and map the entire coast of Northern Asia. In a word, he proposes to attempt the North-East Passage. It was a daring project. Willoughby and Barents had found. graves on the way thither, and innumerable others had turned back baffled. For generations the idea had been abandoned as totally impracticable. But Nordenskiöld had seen too many old-time difficulties vanish before modern skill and power to be hopeless of success. He first collects all the recorded attempts at exploration between the mouth of the Ob and Behring Strait. He considers carefully the amount of success and the causes of failure. Every item regarding the seasons, the temperature, and the state of the ice along shore is noted and weighed. It was found that nearly every point of the coast of the Frozen Sea had been visited, though by different individuals and expeditions, and at widely separated intervals of time. No single traveler had seen all its extended line; no single keel had ever rounded the eastern hemisphere on the north.

As long ago as 1553 began England's strenuous endeavors to make the North-East Passage, believing that by a short voyage the ports of Cathay might be reached. Willoughby, Chancelor, Pet, and Jackman, are conspicuous names in these early attempts. For over a century English, Dutch, and Danes, strove for this goal; but the obstacles were too great for their ill-prepared ships, and by common consent the attempt was given over. Meantime, beginning with 1644, Cossack energy undertook the exploration of the upper coast of Siberia. In that year Nijni Kolymsk was founded: and, shortly after,

Deshnef, starting from that point with three little galleys, navigated the waters where the Vega was stopped, passed through the Strait long afterward named Behring, and reached Anadyr Gulf, though with the loss of most of his men by famine. Nearly a hundred years later the Russians sought to explore the coast from the west. Sailing from Archangel in 1734, they successively entered the Kara Sea, reached the estuary of the Ob, then of the Yenesei, and even that of the Pyasina, but were here stopped. Just at this juncture Lieutenant Prontschischeff sailed down the Lena, and, steering west, at last reached the vicinity of North-East Cape. His two voyages are memorable in Siberian history, and his grave, beside that of his faithful wife, is regarded almost as a shrine by the Arctic traveler there. One such, who visited the spot some five years since, thus writes: "Two decayed graves were close to our camping place, overgrown with lichens, and there are still the remains of a cross; and we learn from an inscription, that we stand before the graves of the unfortunate Prontschischeff (died 11th of September, 1736) and of his heroic wife. . . Surely the memory of Prontschischeff, who attained the highest latitude on the Siberian Polar Sea, in a boat, ought to be honored now, and his neglected grave ought to be restored." In 1742, Tscheljuskin reached North-East Cape by sledge, rounded it, and thus doubled the most northerly point of Asia. His name henceforth belongs to that famed head-land, the Promontorium Tabin of the ancients. Next, the New Siberian Islands were discovered, and often visited for their stores of fossil ivory. Then follow Wrangel's daring trips over the ice to find the reported lands to the north, which have since been. sighted by Kellett, and visited by other navigators.

With these facts before him, and being confident that the vast floods of warm water poured out by the Siberian rivers, which must naturally flow off to the eastward, would keep the shores tolerably free from ice during the summer, Norden. skiöld laid his plans for a bold endeavor. His memorial address to the Swedish Government is a model of clear reasoning and a forcible presentation of the objects of the voyage. Ample funds were quickly placed at his disposal; Mr. Dickson bearing more than half the expense.

We need not dwell on the outfit. The Vega was a Bremenbuilt steam-whaler, her timbers of the toughest oak, with an ice-skin of green-heart four inches in thickness: the crew were picked men Nordenskiöld was leader of the expedition: the officers under Louis Palander, Commander, and the scientific staff were all eminent in their professions: the Vega was provisioned for two full years; and was supplied “with every appliance to secure the health of officers and men, with scientific instruments of all kinds, deep-sea sounding apparatus, and equipments for sledge traveling." Accompanied by the Lena, as tender, which in due time was to proceed up the river of that name, and by two vessels laden with goods, bound for the Yenisei-a venture of M. Sibiriakoff's-the expedition sailed from Gothenburg on its memorable cruise July 4th, 1878.

In few words we must sum up the results of the following year's events. Large volumes will be required to present the details, so rich in geographical, ethnological, and many other branches of scientific knowledge was the voyage. The full record of the trip will doubtless be given by Professor Nordenskiöld at an early day. We may only state that with the ample means at their disposal difficulties vanished before the steel prow and powerful engines of the Vega; and that sturdy craft, whose namesake glows in the starry vault, and is a beacon-light to mariners, has now herself become the trusty pilot of the North-East Passage, and the object of pride and emulation to all future voyagers. We are interested to know that but little trouble was given the navigators by ice, the warm waters from Central Asia, as prophesied, preserving a clear belt of water along shore. Fogs were frequent, and a source of danger; but, as they neared Cape Tscheljuskin, "the air had cleared, and the cape lay before them lighted up by the sun and free from snow." Flags were raised and a salute fired as the Vega's greeting to the most northerly point of the Old World. They had frequent occasions to correct their charts by careful observations, and their collections in botany and zoology were of the utmost interest. Never did men enjoy a voyage more through fields so new to science. But onward they pressed as far as the Lena, and as soon as possible a telegram from Irkutsk gave news to the world of their

progress. Landing on the New Siberian Islands was found impracticable. Then still on to the eastward,--near Cape Schelagskoi meeting the first natives since leaving Jugor Strait.

But the short summer was near its close. It was September: and the ice channel along the coast became narrower day by day, and the capes more difficult of passage. On the 28th September the Vega was frozen in, and so remained till the 18th of the following July. Aside from the satisfaction of making the trip in a single summer, the detention was most opportune, as it gave leisure to study the aspect of nature in that locality through a long winter, and reap a splendid harvest of facts regarding the country and its people. The letters already before the public, written by the scientist of the expedition, make us impatient to receive in full the results of the voyage. One point of special interest to the ethnologist is the striking likeness found between the Tschuktschis and the Eskimos. After passing Cape Schelagskoi two boats, "of the same build as the 'umiaks,'" came off, filled with natives. Of decided Mongolian features, in household articles and implements they are said to closely resemble the natives of Greenland, the correspondence often existing in the minutest particulars. Of the Onkilon race many relics were found. These, with the traces of their dwellings, and the traditions that relate the story of their overthrow and expulsion, awaken our interest in a people probably long since extinct. The Tschuktschis proved very hospitable, and in turn were carefully studied in language and mode of life. They are a fine race physically, but are scarcely capable of resisting the attractions of either brandy or tobacco. To the praise of the officers be it spoken, the former was dealt out only on very special occasions, and in the minutest quantities.

On July 20th, 1879, the Vega sailed through Behring Strait, and the North-East Passage was an accomplished fact. It was a gala-day on board the little steam-bark. Lavishly decorated with flags, and with cannon firing, she sailed out into the Pacific. Fortunately, an old sailor who was in those waters, and witnessed Nordenskiöld's triumphal progress, has tersely described it for us: "He came steaming along like a lord !"— a very satisfactory picture, to our mind, of that historic event.

ARTICLE III.—BRYANT.

THE surprise which Mr. Dana and his associates of the North American Review felt in 1817, upon inspecting a fragment of Bryant's Thanatopsis, and which grew into amazement when they learned that it was the production of a youth of eighteen years, has been shared by many thoughtful readers of Mr. Bryant's poems. There have been many noteworthy examples of precocity in intellectual development; but that one should so early attain the highest success and place himself among the foremost masters of his art, reaching at a single bound apparently a point which many have toiled in vain to seize, and beyond which he was himself scarcely to advance in later years, is surely wonderful. There must have been a choice combination of favoring circumstances to bring his poetic genius so speedily to its blossoming, for these things do not happen by chance. We may trace some of the more obvious of these in his lineage-remotely in his descent from the Pilgrim stock and immediately in the traditions of his family and in the example set him and encouragement and aid afforded him by his father-and also in the physical and social surroundings of his childhood, the intimate companionship with nature and the comparative isolation from man and his works incidental to a new settlement among the wooded hills of Western Massachusetts. The strain of blood derived from the Aldens, the Keiths, the Howards and Washburns, the Packards and Snells of the Old Colony, was not lacking in iron nor yet in more gracious properties. The Pilgrims and their descendants were grave and stern men, self-contained and selfreliant, who faced the problems of life and duty with a serious, determined air. If, as has been alleged, their spirit degenerated at times into austerity and gloom, and pharisaic pride, it was more often yoked with gentle charity and kind endeavor for the good of all, and with unfeigned humility. Both sides of their character grew out of their loyalty to the invisible world, their abiding faith in God, and a solemn sense of the