ON THE SURFACE OF ICE AND SNOW. 81 



becomes dingy, and at last black, decaying into mould which 

 sinks into the firn. 



The second plant of the snow-formation, which M. Hugi 

 discovered, is never found on the firn or common snow, but 

 grows out of the solid ice of the glacier of the Unteraar. The 

 circumstances under which it is produced, and the plant it- 

 self, are described by M. Hugi as follows. 



It is well known that all snow melts away from that gla- 

 cier (as well as others) every year ; and a certain portion of 

 the surface of the glacier of the Unteraar is afterwards seen 

 studded with innumerable holes, from one to six inches wide 

 and from three to twenty inches deep, the bottom of each be- 

 ing filled with black mould. In the neighbourhood of still 

 existing snow-patches near the north-easterly side of the gla- 

 cier, M. Hugi found these holes as yet very shallow, and a 

 substance, more like jelly than mould, was still adhering to 

 the surface. Soon after he also observed on the very borders 

 of the snow-patches, while yet at some distance, spots of a 

 bright yellow colour, which he found to be substances nearly 

 the size of the hand, and an inch thick, very delicate and 

 spongy, the under surface of which was strongly attached to 

 the glacier, but they were unfortunately already in a state of 

 decomposition. If he removed them, they melted into a co- 

 lourless water, leaving his hands stained with an ochraceous 

 substance. It was only in one spot that he found a well-pre- 

 served specimen of this plant. He cut out the part of the 

 glacier on which it was growing ; the ice was perfectly pure 

 and transparent, the plant was about the size of a hand, and 

 half an inch thick, and presented ill-defined hemispherical 

 protuberances and almost the appearance of a Tremella^ but 

 had so little cohesion that every part, when touched, crum- 

 bled, or rather melted, away. The whole appeared like a 

 beautifully bright yellow excrescence of the glacier, studded 

 with bubbles, and melting into a water of the same yellow 

 colour ; whereas in the older and decayed plants, the colour- 

 ing principle had already been precipitated. This produc- 

 tion was sunk between the crystals of the glacier, into which 

 it had struck innumerable capillary radicles. The line of se- 

 paration between the ice and the growth could nowhere be 

 distinctly made out, nor could any peculiar organization be 

 discovered in the latter, even with the assistance of a lens. 



We see, therefore, that the power of vegetation is inherent 

 even to snow and ice, and that by creating organized beings, 

 which decay, they lay the foundation for the existence of be- 

 ings of a higher order. 



As to the production of animal life on the snow-formation, 



