The Vega expedition (1878–80) was a Swedish research expedition that explored the polar sea north of Siberia and was the first to navigate through the North-East Passage. Nordenskiöld’s account of the voyage was published in English in two volumes (Nordenskiöld 1881). CD’s annotated copy is in the Darwin Library–CUL.
The original letter is complete. It was sold with two other letters, two in CD’s hand, one signed by him, making a total of five pages. One letter in the lot, letter to ?, 29 March 1882 (see Correspondence vol. 30), turns out to be in CD’s hand and one page long. The other is the letter to ?, 2 May [1869 or later] (see Correspondence vol. 30, Supplement).