284 FOOTNOTES FROM 



by Mr. Goodsir, on the north side of Cornwall!.? Island, 

 in lat. 75 36' north, and long. 96 west. It was a 

 branch of white spruce, very much bleached in some 

 places, and in others charred and blackened as if it had 

 been used for firewood. On both these fragments of 

 wood traces of minute microscopic vegetation were ob- 

 served, which, it was hoped, if properly investigated, 

 Avould throw some indirect light upon the mysterious fate 

 of the missing expedition, by indicating the probable course 

 pursued, and the approximate date. For this purpose 

 they were submitted to the Rev. Mr. Berkeley, who ex- 

 amined them microscopically with the most minute atten- 

 tion, and sent a report to the Admiralty upon the subject, 

 which is published in detail in " Sutherland's Journal of 

 a Voyage in Baffin's Bay in 1850-1851." This accom- 

 plished naturalist found the vegetation in both cases to 

 be very similar to the mottled patches of a dark-olive 

 colour, with which rails and wooden structures in this 

 country, exposed to atmospheric changes, are speedily 

 covered, and which form the incipient or the mature 

 stages of the simplest cryptogamic plants. The bleached 

 cells and fibres of the fragment of elm were gorged and 

 interwoven with slender mycelia, while on its different 

 surfaces appeared several dark-coloured specks, referred 

 to the genus Phoma, one of the simplest and minutest 

 fungi. They consisted merely of a grumous nucleus, 

 containing sporidia in a mature state, and included in a 

 naked tubercle, examples of which may be seen about 

 the end of autumn on withered willow-leaves, decaying 

 stems of dahlias, and very frequently on fallen oak- 

 leaves. As it was exceedingly improbable that these 



