420 M. Pesihier's Fhys^ko-chemkal hiquiry into [June, 



Subjected to the action of boiling alcohol, No. II. experienced 

 only a very slight effect : cold and warm water did not produce 

 any more. 



Fifty grains of No. II. when submitted to destructive distilla- 

 tion, yielded an aqueous ammoniacal hquor, some drops of 

 empvreumatic oil ; and left a coalv residue, wei"hin"- 32 grs. 



!No. 1. not containing any combustible substances, was not 

 subjected to the same trial. 



One hundred grains of No. I. experienced but slightly the 

 action of muriatic acid, even with the aid of heat. The 

 insoluble part., treated with nitric acid and an addition of sugar, 

 furnished by means of a long ebuUition, a solution wliich had a 

 strong orange tinge ; and left a residue, weighing 65'5U grains, 

 composed of fragments of stones and of rock crj'stal. The acid 

 solulions furnished alumina 6-35, peroxide of iron 21*35; and 

 there remained in solution in the pure alkaline liquor employed in 

 the separation of the alumina, a vegetable principle, which had 

 been dissolved by the acid, and which communicated to it a 

 stron»- yellow colour. Its products are : 



Siliceous substance 65"50 



Alumina 6-35 



Peroxide of iron 21*35 



Soluble organic substance . . 6-80 



100-00 



One hundred grains of No. II. furnished, with muriatic 

 acid, a violet-brown solution, such as M. de Saussure obtained ; 

 but the action of this acid being found too weak to dissolve the 

 oxide of iron, it v.as necessary to follow the same process as in 

 the preceding operation, and the principles recognized were : 



Insoluble substance 20'00 



Alumina 4-25 



Peroxide of iron 31*25 



Chalk 0-50 



Insoluble organic substance. . 37*50 

 Ditto soluble as in No. I . . . . G*50 



100*00 



A short time after this, having received from the Prior, by the 

 medium of Professor Pictet, two bottles of water of red snow, 

 with all the substances met with on its surface, the following 

 experiments were made, which seem to throw a much greater 

 light on the cause of this colour. 



One of these bottles. No. I. contained 27 ounces of water; it 

 came, as the Prior expressed himself, from a snow which gene- 

 rally covers in June large tracts ; and which had a bright rose 



