In fine:—Brunel was one of the inciters of the Dutch Arctic voyages, and spoke, therefore, with the South-Netherlander Moucheron. Alferius is known to have had the intention of visiting the South-Netherlander Mercator, with whose co-operation Moucheron gave that impulse which resulted in the first expedition of the Netherlanders to the Arctic regions. From all this circumstantial evidence we must draw the conclusion that Alferius is the same personage as Olivier Brunel, and, based upon this conclusion, the following history of Brunel has been given by Mr. S. Muller.— Olivier Brunel was born at Brussels in the first part of the sixteenth century. Of the early years of his life absolutely nothing is known. It may be that he went in 1565 with the first ships of Enkhuizen to Kola, or that, escaping from the tyranny of the Spanish Duke of Alva, he came over to Holland, together with a number of South Netherland merchant families, such as the Moucherons, the Le Maires, the Usselins, and others. However, it is quite certain that, soon after the establishment of the Netherlanders at Kola, he undertook the voyage to Kholmogory already alluded to. He was not lucky on that occasion, for, watched by the English, who feared him as a rival, he was handed over to the Russian Government as a spy, and remained for several years a captive at Jaroslav. At last assistance made its appearance in the persons of the brothers Jakov and Grigory Anikiew, who belonged to the celebrated commercial house of the Strogonoffs at Solvitchegodok. These latter asked and obtained his liberty of the Czar. The generous merchants had every reason to felicitate themselves on the benefit conferred upon Brunel. Their protégé took a zealous and active part in the yearly expeditions which were made by the Russians towards the East. Brunel passed overland through the territory of the Samoyeds to Siberia, as well as by sea along the coast, and in one of his voyages, crossing the river of Petchora, at last he reached the long-desired Obi river. In one of these expeditions, which probably now and then went through the Matthew’s Strait, a passage well known to the Russians, his guide, a Russian, brought him to Kostin Shar, a strait which by this means became known to Europe.