Along the Russian Arctic Regions: Adolf Nordenski�ld's Voyage around Europe and Asia in 1878--80.

This illustrated book by Eduard Andreevich Granstrem (1843--1918), a Russian writer of popular histories for young people, recounts the first successful navigation of the Northeast Passage, accomplished by the Finnish-born geographer and Arctic explorer Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskio?ld (1832--1901) on the steamship Vega in 1878--79. A possible northern passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans had been discussed since the early 16th century, but Nordenskio?ld was the first navigator to travel the entire water route along the northern coast of Europe and Asia. Accompanied by three other ships, the Vega left Karlskrona, Sweden, on June 22, 1878 with a crew of 21 men, plus a complement of officers and scientists. After sailing along the northern coast of Siberia, Nordenskio?ld and his crew spent the winter frozen in the ice near the Bering Strait. They continued on to Japan in the summer of 1879, reaching Yokohama on September 2. Nordenskio?ld returned to Sweden via the Suez Canal, reaching Stockholm on April 24, 1880, thereby circumnavigating the continents of both Asia and Europe. Granstrem's book also describes Russian and foreign expeditions in the Arctic Ocean prior to the late 19th century. This copy is in the Yeltsin Presidential Library in St. Petersburg.