Chap. II. COMMANDER JOHN ROSS. 33 



" It is worthy of remark that this colouring matter, 

 be it what it may, does not penetrate more than an 

 inch or two beneath the surface of the snow." 



Many conjectures of course were afloat concern- 

 ing the cause of so unusual an appearance, but 

 Ross says " it was at once determined it could not 

 be the dung of birds ;" rather a hasty conclusion, 

 for Mr. Brande the chvmist, to whom it was first 

 submitted on the return of the expedition, for the 

 purpose of being analysed, having detected uric 

 acid, pronounced it at once to be the excrement of 

 birds. It was the general opinion of the officers, 

 who examined it with the microscope, that it must 

 be vegetable; and in this opinion Dr. Wollaston 

 concurred, after a minute examination both by the 

 microscope and chemical tests — yet he even had 

 his doubts. Mr. Brown, the celebrated botanist, 

 conjectured it might be derived from some of the 

 algae, conferva?, or tremellse (Tremella cruenta) : 

 the more probable as the roots of the moss, (a spe- 

 cies of Polytricum) common on these cliffs, are 

 deep scarlet — deep, indeed, must they be to sanc- 

 tion the outrageously exaggerated print of these 

 crimson cliffs, as coloured in the volume. There is 

 nothing new, however, in the discovery of red 

 snow. Pliny and other writers of his time men- 

 tion it ; Saussure found it in various parts of the 

 Alps; Martin found it in Spitzbergen, and no 

 doubt it is to be met with in most alpine regions. 



D 



