I. Extract of a letter to General Sabine from Dr. Otto Torell, dated from Copenhagen, Dec. 12, 1863

Abstract

The Swedish Diet has given the necessary money to complete the survey for the measurement of an Arc of the Meridian at Spitzbergen. When the proposal was submitted to the Diet by our Government, at the instance of the Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, it was passed without opposition in the three first houses of the Diet (viz. the Nobles, the Clergy, and the Burghers). In the fourth house (the Peasants), only one Member opposed the proposal, on the ground of the high amount of the Budget. He was replied to by seven or eight other Members, advising that the house should not oppose a grant which had for its object to advance science. In consequence the money was also voted by the House of Peasants. There is every reason to expect that the question of the practicability of the under taking will be settled in the next summer, and I hope that the result may be satisfactory.