A Lloyd's steamer, having on board the principal officials of the city, as also a few friends, was now seen wending its way towards us with a band of music on board, and fell into the procession. The latter made its way, enveloped in clouds of smoke, to the picturesquely-situated city, as far as the Bay of Muggia, where each ship let go her anchor in her appointed position, and—The voyage was over.
On the transcriber of the foregoing literary detail of the incidents of the voyage of the Novara still devolves the task of presenting a brief summary of the chief objects aimed at, and the actual scientific results attained by the Imperial Expedition, so as to moderate the exaggerated expectations of one set of readers, and to rectify the hasty, depreciatory judgment of others, by stating obvious and convincing facts.
He feels, above all, compelled to examine the question, which not alone criticism but the entire educated world will address with reference to an undertaking begun under such auspices and of such universal interest, "What are the actual results, and what those to be anticipated from the Novara Expedition? How did its members respond to the efforts made to provide them with every possible appliance that munificence could supply?"
In order aright to answer this query, whether the first Austrian Expedition round the globe has really answered the expectations formed of it, it is necessary to bear in mind that its first and foremost object was the instruction on an adequate scale of the officers and midshipmen of the Imperial navy, and that scientific investigation was always regarded as of secondary importance to that chief object.
The descriptive portion of the voyage of the Novara must be considered simply as the precursor of a series of scientific publications which, thanks to Imperial munificence, will be published at the expense of the State. The nautico-physical portion will include the astronomico-geodetical, magnetic,
and meteorological observations made throughout the voyage, and will appear under the auspices of the Imperial hydrographic Institution at Trieste.
The abundant materials collected in the departments of natural history, statistics, and commercial policy, will be prepared by the various gentlemen who accompanied the Expedition, and comprise as many sections as there were scientific branches represented on board ship during the voyage. These publications will embrace, in a collected form, the observations, investigations, and results obtained in the course of the entire campaign, relating to Geology, Zoology, Botany, Ethnography and Anthropology, Medicine, Statistics, and Trade.
And while these various works can only after their publication admit of a just opinion being formed as to what has been achieved in this respect by the Expedition, the numerous and valuable collections of objects of natural history already give an idea of the activity and research of each member of the scientific staff in the course of the voyage.