of Bed Snow. 55 



we observed that the colouring matter was contained in the 

 intervals between the particles, and this gave to the surface, 

 when viewed near, somewhat of a veined appearance. The 

 coloured spots descended beneath the surface of the snow to 

 the depth of several inches, and often almost a foot ; some- 

 times the colour was most conspicuous on the surface, but 

 at other times it was most remarkable some inches below 

 it. Wherever rocks or stones had occasioned little wells in 

 the snow, the perpendicular sides of these wells were also 

 coloured to the depth of many feet. On the whole, however, 

 the colouring matter penetrated only to a very trifling extent 

 into the substance of the snow, which became more and more 

 compact in proportion to its distance from the surface. 



A sufficient quantity of this coloured snow having been col- 

 lected and placed in vessels of earthenware, that it might 

 melt, I impatiently waited for the time when I might subject 

 it to the examination of the microscope. As the snow melted, 

 the colouring matter gradually deposited upon the sides and 

 bottom of the vessels, under the form of a deep red powder ; 

 a fact which alone rendered the existence of a gelatinous mat- 

 ter very improbable. After two or three hours, the snow be- 

 ing partially melted, I introduced a portion under a micro- 

 scope of the power of 300 diameters. Expecting to see nothing 

 more than inanimate globules of Protococcus, I was not a little 

 astonished to find, that the colouring matter was composed of 

 organised bodies of different forms and natures, some of which 

 were vegetables, but by much the larger proportion, endowed 

 with swift movements, belonged to the animal kingdom. The 

 colour of the greater number was a bright red, approaching 

 sometimes to a blood colour, at other times to crimson, or a 

 very deep brown and almost opaque red. Besides these co- 

 loured bodies, there were others not less organized, which 

 were colourless or greyish, the largest of which were evidently 

 of an animal nature, but whose number was so small, that I 

 suspected that their presence was accidental ; and, moreover, 

 there was an immense number of very minute spherical ob- 

 dies, and colourless, evidently of a vegetable nature, which filled 

 up all the spaces unoccupied by the others. 



As the infusoria were much more numerous than the alga?, 



