ON THE SURFACE OF ICE AND SNOW. 29 



surface of the globe, will be considerably more equable than 

 might be otherwise anticipated. 



Now we must suppose that long before the whole of this 

 vast geological formation shall be added to the surface of the 

 globe, the whole of the living creation strictly belonging to 

 the present crust must have become extinct, and their remains 

 imbedded and partly preserved in snow and ice, as their ex- 

 istence is incompatible with a ground composed (chiefly) of. 

 snow and ice, as well as with a perfectly dry atmosphere. 



Let us not, however, conclude, that this new surface will 

 present a dreary aspect, or be void of vegetable and animal 

 life. During the gradual transition from the present state of 

 things to the succeeding one, it cannot be doubted that many 

 organisms will arise w?iich will link the succeeding creation 

 to the former ; and though in the present state of the surface 

 the geographical distribution of the species of the same fami- 

 lies appears to prove that the complication and perfection of 

 structure depends greatly on the quantity of free caloric pre- 

 sent, yet we have no right to conclude that under circumstan- 

 ces entirely changed, the comparative absence of that element 

 from the ground must render the new creation comparatively 

 scanty and imperfect. Nay, there are many reasons which 

 would seem to support an opposite conclusion. 

 ^;/'i for proofs of this new creation we have to look to the poles 

 and the tops of the alpine mountains, where the geological 

 formation of ice and snow has already fairly begun. The 

 Flora of these regions is, as yet, very poor ; but we have to 

 consider that it is in an incipient state. On the Alps grow 

 two species, the red snow [Protococcus or Palmella nivalis), 

 and a very curious production which M. Hugi found only on 

 the glacier of the Unteraar, but which is said also to occur 

 on that of Chamouni, a description of which I shall give be- 

 low. To the snow-flora of the Poles, consisting likewise of 

 the red snow, the expedition of the Recherche to Spitzbergen 

 has lately added (as stated in a letter from Dr. Robert to 

 Baron Struve, the Russian minister in Hamburgh) a second 

 species of red snow, and a delicate green flabelliform plant, 

 two inches in height. Now we have only to notice the pe- 

 culiar circumstances under which these plants are found, in 

 order to be convinced that they are the specific and sponta- 

 neous productions of a soil that is neither "land" nor "seas," 

 and to render it probable that from every new and well-esta- 

 blished stratum there will spring a new creation at any time. 



As the polar regions are comparatively unknown, and have 

 never been visited by man within about ten degrees of lati- 

 tude from the north pole, these phenomena have only been 



