1886.] 



MICEOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



43 



ture has rapidly melted the snow ; 

 and in all the crevices soil and mois- 

 ture enough collects to induce a pro- 

 lific vegetation, which passes from 

 germ to maturity in a very brief 

 period. The deposits of red vegeta- 

 ble matter would be readily and 

 naturally attributed to the landwash 

 from the melting, except for the fact 

 that they are often found many miles 

 away from the mountain valleys — 

 farther than they could travel before 

 they lost their color by weathering. 



I don't know that my observations 

 will be of the slightest value, but w^ill 

 say that while cruising along the 

 Labrador coast in lat. 53°, in com- 

 pany with Prof. Elliott Coues and 

 others in i860, we saw a large gothic 

 iceberg of opaque dead white, whose 

 fa9ade was crossed by a transverse 

 vein of brilliant crimson. The com- 

 plexion of the ice, and the situation 

 of the red streak on the face of the 

 berg, indicated plainly that the posi- 

 tion of the latter was on the surface 

 of the superficial or topmost stratum 

 of the glacier from which the berg 

 was broken oft', and therefore that the 

 red deposit was of recent origin, and 

 probably of the previous summer, 

 because the rate of progression of the 

 glacier toward the sea is only a few 

 inches an hour, and its source was 

 several miles back among the moun- 

 tains. The section of ice which 

 formed the berg was not far back 

 from the front when the red deposit 

 was made. 



The phenomenon of red snow 

 should not be a mystery to sub- Arctic 

 travellers, who are perfectly aware 

 that prolific vegetation is not incom- 

 patible with boreal meteorology. 

 The requisite conditions of heat and 

 subsoil moisture are present to a 

 superlative degree during the short 

 midsummers which have no long in- 

 terval of night to chill the earth, and 

 maturity is reached in an incredibly 

 short time by a sort of forcing pro- 

 cess which is even now being imi- 

 tated by advanced agriculturists, as far 

 as a practicable application can be 



made. Readers of Arctic narratives 

 are apt to gather the impi-ession that 

 the polar belt is always frigid, and 

 that ice is perpetual and the only pro- 

 duct. I've seen strawberries growing 

 beside an ice-field in latitude 60 de- 

 grees. 



I have never noticed any red seams 

 in the South Alaskan icebergs like 

 the one described in the Labrador 

 berg, but the source of Atlantic ice- 

 bergs is much farther to the north, 

 all of them being formed north of 

 latitude 60 degi'ees, which is the birth- 

 place of the most famous of the 

 Alaska glaciers. It is likely that the 

 boreal faunas are different in respect 

 to lichens and mosses, as they cer- 

 tainly are in respect to other forms 

 and orders. 



Charles Hallock. 



Staining and Doul)le Staining 

 Tegetable Tissues. 



[We have been asked from time 

 to time by correspondents to give 

 references to good processes of stain- 

 ing and double staining vegetable 

 tissues. Various excellent processes 

 have been published in these pages 

 to which the reader may refer 

 through the indexes, but in addition 

 to these we have been quite at a loss to 

 give satisfactory replies to such inqui- 

 ries. We have therefore decided to 

 republish the methods of Dr. George 

 S. Beatty, which were given ten years 

 ago in the Pop. Sci. Alonthly and 

 reprinted in the Ainer. Jour. JMicr. 

 and Pop. Sc/., believing that they 

 will serve every purpose. Of these 

 methods we may say that, so far as 

 we are aware, they are as good as 

 any since devised. Dr. Beatty's 

 stainings, even at the present day, 

 command a high market value when 

 they can be found for sale, which is 

 seldom the case. We may also" add 

 that we can vouch for the excellence 

 of the processes as given, from per- 

 sonal experience. 



The reader who may wish to ex- 

 periment in this fascinating work will 



