OF AN

EXPEDITION TO THE POLAR SEA,

IN THE YEARS 1820, 1821, 1822, & 1823.

COMMANDED BY LIEUTENANT,

NOW ADMIRAL, FERDINAND VON WRANGELL,

OF THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL NAVY.

EDITED BY

MAJOR EDWARD SABINE, R. A. F. R. S.

LONDON

JAMES MADDEN AND CO.,

SUCCESSORS TO PARBURY & CO., 8, LEADENHALL STREET

MDCCCXXXX.

PREFACE.

THE work, of which the present is a translation, was drawn up in the German language by M. Engelhardt, from the journals and papers of M. von Wrangell and the other officers of the expedition, placed in his hands for that purpose; and was published at Berlin, in July, 1839, under the editorial care of Professor Ritter, with the sanction of M. von Wrangell, who himself communicated the map which accompanied the publication. Notices had been previously given by Professor Parrot regarding some of the physical observations which were made in the course of the expedition, but no general account of its proceedings appeared, until this in 1839, either in the Russian or in any other language.

The translation has been made by Mrs. Sabine; it has been reduced into a somewhat smaller compass than the original, partly by the omission of the meteorological tables, and of those containing the details of the astronomical and magnetical observations, the results of which appear in the Narrative,— partly by the substitution of a more simple and con