From here the _Lena_ appropriately turned its course to the mouth of its namesake, while the _Vega_ proceeded on her course, reaching on the 12th September Cape North, within 120 miles of Behring Strait; this cape Cook had reached from the east in 1778.
Unfortunately the ice became packed so closely that they could not proceed farther, and they had to remain in this tantalising condition for no less than ten months.

On the 18th July 1879 the ice broke up, and two days later the _Vega_ rounded East Cape with flying colours, saluting the easternmost coast of Asia in honour of the completion of the north-east passage.

Baron Nordenskiold has since enjoyed a well-earned leisure from his arduous labours in the north by studying and publishing the history of early cartography, on which he has issued two valuable atlases, containing fac-similes of the maps and charts of the Middle Ages.
General interest thus re-aroused in Arctic exploration brought about a united effort of all the civilised nations to investigate the conditions of the Polar regions.

An international Polar Conference was held at Hamburg in 1879, at which it was determined to surround the North Pole for the years 1882-83 by stations of scientific observation, intended to study the conditions of the Polar Ocean.

No less than fifteen expeditions were sent forth; some to the Antarctic regions, but most of them round the North Pole.