426 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC EEGIONS. 



Snow of a reddish or brownish colour is not un- 

 frequently seen. The brownish stain which occurs 

 on shore, is given by an earthy substance brought 

 from the mountains, by the streams of water deriv- 

 ed from thawing ice and snow, or the fall of rain ; 

 the reddish colour, as far as I have observed, is given 

 by the mute of birds ; though, in the example met 

 with by Captain Ross in Baffin's Bay, the stain ap- 

 pears to have been of a vegetable nature. The little 

 auk ( Alca alle), which feeds upon shrimps, is foun d, 

 in some parts of the polar seas, in immense numbers. 

 They frequently retreat to pieces of ice or surfaces of 

 snow, and stain them all over red with their mute. 

 Martens saw red snow in Spitzbergen, which he con- 

 sidered as being stained by rain-water running down 

 by the rocks. 



The extreme beauty and endless variety of the 

 microscopic objects procured in the animal and ve- 

 getable kingdoms, are perhaps fully equalled, if not 

 surpassed, in both the particulars of beauty and va- 

 riety, by the crystals of snow. The principal confi- 

 gurations are the stelliform and hexagonal ; though 

 almost every shape of which, the generating angles 

 of 60° and 120* are susceptible, may, in the course of 

 a few years observation, be discovered. Some of the 

 general varieties in the figures of the crystals, may 

 be referred to the temperature of the air ; but the 

 particular and endless modifications of similar class- 

 es of crystals, can only be referred to the will and 



