The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-09-09
THE NORTHEAST PASSAGE.

DOlu NOrSemen became CtieDIdJeu ds tliO
most hardy and adventurous OF all mari
ners The lapse of ten centuries has not
cooled their dor in the prosecution OF
nautical enterprise. Narrow as are her
boundaries, limited as are her commercial
products, it is nevertheless fact that
Norway, next to England, has now the
largest mercantile marine of any nation
on the Globe She builds ships and raises
seamen. And so high is the character Of
her mariners for seamanship that her YES
sells are favored as tie common carriers OF
European commerce.
1t has been more than fifty years since
Norway has been politically annexed to
Sweden. But this has in no wise dimin-
ished the national zeal and hardihood
always characteristic of the Norwegian
seamen. Even their trading voyages are
are often eagerly converted into voyages
of discovery, just as they were when their
ancestors landed and traded on the coasts
of this Continent five hundred years be-
fore Columbus discovered it,
The announcement the other day OF
the safe arrival of the Swedish ship Vega
at the japanese port OF 4oko-
hama, on the Pacific, from the
Atlantic by the way of the Arc
tic Ocean, is an instance of the bold and
enterprising seamanship of that nautical
race. This undertaking, now so success
fully achieved, was entirely the work of
private enterprise, though prosecuted un-
der royal sanction. The expedition was
placed under the direction of private
gentleman whose fame as a scientist had
become familiar to both hemispheres,
Professor Nordenksjold; the pronuncia-
ton of whose name reminds us of South
ey's verse on the unpronounceable name
of a certain Russian Admiral:
"And last of all an Admiral came,
i A terrible man with terrible name;
A name which you all nusu know very well,
But which nobody can speak and nobody can
spell"
We can only undertake to spell Pro
fessor N-o-r-d-e-n-k-sj j-o-l-d's name, leav-
ing our readers to pronounce it as they
please, or as they best can.
Professor Nordenksjold had long beer
interested in the subject of exploring
that portion of the Arctic Ocean lying
north of Europe and Asia. In 1872 he
headed an expedition to Spitzbcrgen, anc
wintered in Mussel Bay, at 500 of north
latitude, intending to proceed thence by
sledges to the North Pole. But theil
reindeer escaped, and their provisions
grew scarce, so that his sleighride to the
Pole had to be abandoned.
With great danger and delay he and his
adventurous company succeeded in re-
turning to Norway, where he at once sci
on foot another expedition to the Arctic
Ocean, with the design of making the
Northeast Passage from the Atlantic tt
j. the Pacific around the northern extremit,
of the continents of Europe and Asia
And that is the achievement that Profes
sor Nordenksjold has just now success
fully accomplished, by sailing from th'
Norwegian port Of Tromsoe by Novf
Zembla and the northern coast of Siberif
to our own Pacific coast at Alaska, anC
: thence to the Asiatic port of Japan.
Tromsoe, the port and island from
which Professor Nordenksjold took hi
final departure from Europe, is situate al
60 of latitude and belongs to the Lo
fodden group Of islands that fringe the
coast of Norway, and which are very nu
merous; no less than l 200 of them heins
inhabited. On Kvalo, one of this group
is situated the city of Hammerfest, dis
tinguished as being the most northerl,
city in the world, at II Q of north lati
tude, on the same parallel as the center o
Greenland on our continent. And yet
on the Norwegian coast at that latitude
barley and our common vegetables are cul
! tivated, while the bays of the Lofoddel
group are seldom frozen over. This diff
? ference in climates is attributable to th'
+ warm waters of the Gulf Stream, which
: impinge upon that coast and flow on to
I wards Nova Zembla into the Arcti
y Ocean.
1t is on this account that the North
9 east Passage from ocean to ocean has beel
= found more feasible than the Northwes
n Passage, which as yet has not been accom-
plshed, in spite of the repeated attempt
to force passage around the continent o
V America; and in which Jim Bennett
S vessel is now engaged by the way of Beh
:. rings Straits
e Sailing from Tromsoe July 25, 1875
e Professor Nordenksjold's vessel, th
IS Vega proceeded without difficulty t
), double North Cape, the extreme northern
o limit of the European Continent, at lat
it tude p 0; and thence through the Yugo
n Straits between the mainland and Nov
II Zembla, at the entrance of the Kara Sea
C This was accomplished in ten days with
= ont meeting a partiele of ice: and thi