All the vessels in port are dressed with bunting, and crammed with spectators. An army of photographers, who all have their cameras pointed at the _Virgo_, are preparing to immortalize the vessel as she now appears. The launches and all the boats, large and small, are making the _Virgo_ their rendezvous. The rest of the population is on the quays and the neighbouring buildings. M. Vieillard, a friend, who came to accompany me, left me at nine o’clock; we arranged to meet at Spitzbergen. I saluted Baron Dickson, his daughter and his niece, who were on the quay. His son came to the _Virgo_ to shake hands, and wish me a good voyage. The three explorers also arrived with their friends crowding round them. The partings were very touching, and the emotion, in which all present shared, reached its height when precisely at ten o’clock the signal for starting was sounded. The _Virgo_ is slowly moving. The enthusiasm becomes indescribable. An immense hurrah, four times repeated, is volleyed from every panting breast. Handkerchiefs and hats are waved frantically, the cheers burst forth with redoubled vigour. Andrée, Ekholm, and Strindberg, appear at the bulwarks with their bouquets and their ribbons: they signal their adieux and acknowledge ours. [Illustration: THE FIRST FLOATING ICEBERGS.] Then we, too, have our share in this grand and most impressive manifestation. The flag of the _Virgo_ dips by way of salute, and then rises again, and at this moment the _cortége_ of vessels and boats forms up around our vessel, which has progressed a little towards the open sea. Something like a hundred boats follow in our wake. On several of them bands are playing, and a regular procession commences. Those who have no boats follow along the quays; it is a veritable tide of human beings. A few inevitable collisions occurred between some of the impetuous small craft, but most happily no serious accident is to be regretted. The sun is shining gloriously; the sky, too, has put on its festive garb, and seems desirous of encouraging the bold explorers leaving for the conquest of the North Pole. We are now out in the open sea. At one o’clock we are assembled on the quarter-deck, and the introductions commence:— Herr Andrée, former pupil of the higher technical school of Stockholm, Director of the Patent Office, and commander of the expedition; Herr Ekholm, doctor of natural philosophy, chief of the Meteorological Office of Stockholm; Herr Strindberg, former student of Upsala University, second master at the Free University of Stockholm; Herr Svante Arrhénius, hydrographer, chief of the Stockholm University, professor of natural philosophy; Herr Grumberg, naturalist, master at the Stockholm University, higher school; Dr. Carl Ekelund, physician to the expedition; Captain Hugo Zachau, commander of the _Virgo_, which ordinarily plies between Gothenburg and Hull.