ALG^. 147 



of March, 1803 ; and a more remarkable one still in 

 the night between the 14th and 15th of March, 18 13 

 in Calabria, Abruzzo, Tuscany, and Bologna, conse- 

 quently along the whole chain of the Apennines.^ 



Captain Ross saw mountains in Baffin's Bay which 

 were covered by red snow, eight miles long. The 

 snow was found to penetrate in some places to a 

 depth of ten or twelve feet, and seemed to have 

 existed long in the same state. Darwin, in his nar- 

 rative of the voyage of the Beagle, relates that, when 

 travelling in the Andes, he saw a mountain covered 

 with red snow. At a meeting of the San Francisco 

 Microscopical Society, Dr. Harkness presented a 

 bottle of red snow which he gathered on the Wasatch 

 Mountains. It was found about ten thousand feet 

 above the sea level, and, when fresh, had the appear- 

 ance of being drenched with blood, as though some 

 huge animal had been slaughtered. 



The early opinion prevalent was that the red snow 

 fell from the sky, that it invariably fell during the 

 night, and consequently no one ever saw it fall. At 

 one time it was doubted whether it was a lichen, a 

 fungus, or even an infusorial animal. Finally it was 

 determined to be a fresh-water alga, to v.-hich the 

 present name is applied of Chlamydococcus nivalis. 

 Like other algse, moisture seems essential to its pro- 

 duction, and hitherto this plant has not been found 

 in places where it was debarred from this pabulum 

 at some period of its growth. But once formed, it 

 seems to possess the power of remaining stationary, 

 and, perhaps, of reviving after an unlimited period. 



' J. C, Agardh, " Memoir on the Red Snow." 



