811 



SNOW, RED. 



SNOW, RED. 



813 



Ross returned from his arctic expedition, that thia substance was 

 accurately examined with a view to the discovery of the origin of its 

 peculiar colour. Whilst in Baffin's Bay, 75 51' N. lat., 67 15' W. 

 long., Captain Ross discovered a range of cliff* covered with snow of 

 a crimson colour. The cliffs were about 600 feet high, and were 

 coloured for the extent of eight miles. According to Captain Ross, 

 the party he sent on shore "found that the snow was penetrated even 

 down to the rock, in many places to a depth of 12 feet, by the colour- 

 ing matter, and that it had the appearance of having been a long time 

 in that state." 



In the Appendix to the account of Captain Ross's polar expedition, 

 Mr. Robert Brown described the colouring-matter of this snow as 

 dependent on a species of unicellular plants belonging to the family 

 of Alga, and pointed out its resemblance to the Tremdla cruenta of 

 ' English Botany.' At the same time some of the red snow water 

 brought from Baffin's Bay was sent to Francis Bauer, who published 

 the results of a very careful examination of it under the microscope, 

 in the seventh volume of Brande's 'Journal of Science and Arts,' 

 accompanied with several drawings. He found that the water con- 

 tained a number of opaque or red spherical globules, which were 

 heavier than the water, forming a sediment at the bottom of the bottle, 

 and also of some transparent vesicular bodies which floated about in 

 the fluid. On examining the red globules, he found them possessed 

 of a pedicel resembling that of some species of Uredo, and regarded 

 them as a species appertaining to this genus. He subsequently 

 obserTe.l that many of the globules were attached to a gelatinous matrix 

 presenting a cellular and articulated character. On exposing the 

 water with the globules for some days to the air, he found that they 

 lost their colour, and that on the sides of the vessel were developed 

 new portions of the gelatinous matrix, which were covered with small 

 globules, which he looked upon as young Uredos. He also found that 

 on comparing the chemical analysis of the Uredo fcelida with that of 

 the red snow, they in a great measure agreed, and hence he came to 

 the conclusion that the colouring-matter of the red snow was a fungus 

 belonging to the genus Uredo, and to which he gave the name U. nivalis. 

 [PROTOCOCCUS ; H.SMATOCOCCDS.] 



But the question was not thus set at rest. In 1823 Baron Wrangel 

 gave an account of a plant of a red colour, which he called Lepraria 

 Xermerina, and supposed to be identical with the long-disputed 

 Hysxiu folithtu of Linnaeus. This plant was obtained from the surface 

 of white limestone rocks, forming over them a thin red crust, and 

 was also found contained in the rain-water remaining on the lime- 

 stone. During the same year Professor Agardh of Lund, who had 

 previously suggested the identity of this plant and that of red snow, 

 received specimens of the Lepraria from Baron Wrangel, and also 

 of the Uredo Tuvalu of Bauer from England, and he came to the 

 conclusion, after a very minute examination, "that the two plants 

 were actually one and the same species." " We must conclude," says 

 Agardh (Greville's 'Scottish Cryptog. Flora Protococcus,' p. 15), 

 " that the Undo nivalii and the Lepraria Kermesina are alike called 

 into existence by the gradual melting of the snow, and the intensity 

 of light in their relative situations ; and that they are neither washed 

 down from the rocks, as some persons believe, nor are precipitated 

 from the atmosphere, as might be inferred from the accounts trans- 

 mitted by the Italians." 



The plants which Agardh had thus identified, he could not con- 

 sider, with Bauer, a fungus, or, with Wrangel, a lichen, but, from its 

 analogy to some of the Algae, he placed it in his ' Systema Algal-urn,' 

 in that family under the name of Protococcus niralis. 



Proiococcta nfoalii, Grcvillc (G/eicococcut uitalii, Shuttlcworth). 

 a, mature globules mixed with younger ones (1) lying on a mass of gelatine ; 

 ft, mature globule*, tome burst, with granules lying on the gelatine ; c, granules ; 

 d, globules after discharging their granules ; e, full-sized globules. 



In 1825 the subject was taken up by Dr. Greville of Edinburgh. 

 He had received specimens of the plant of red snow from the polar 

 regions, and also from the island of Lismoro in Scotland. From this 

 latter situation it was sent to Dr. Greville by Captain Carmichael, 

 who Bays : " It occurs in abundance on the borders of the lakes of 



Lismore, spreading over the decayed reeds, leaves, &c. at the water's 

 edge, but in greater perfection on the calcareous rocks within the 

 reach of occasional inundation; and what is rather remarkable, it 

 sterns to thrive equally well whether immersed in water or exposed 

 to the dry atmosphere. It is to be found more or less at all seasons 

 of the year." The specimens were immersed in water, and then 

 examined by the microscjpe. In every instance Dr. Greville observed 

 a gelatinous substratum varying in thickness, colourless, diffuse, 

 without any border. Upon this gelatine rested a vast number of 

 minute globules, the colour of fine garnets, exactly spherical, nearly 

 opaque, yet very brilliant, and nearly equal in size. In the full-sized 

 globules granules were detected in the interior, which gave to the 

 surface a reticulated appearance. When mature, they burst, anil the 

 granules escaped, to the number of six, eight, or more, and the 

 membrane only of the globule was left behind, buoyant and colour- 

 less. The globules or granules were never observed to move. Dr. 

 Greville at first doubted the propriety of referring his plant to 

 Agardh's genus Protococcus, as in his definition Agardh had not 

 mentioned any gelatinous substratum, which was so evident in his 

 own specimens. He however determined on keeping up the genus 

 with an amended character. Agardh's definition of Protococcus is 

 merely, " plants with aggregated, not mucous globules." To this 

 Greville added, " globules containing granules seated on a transparent 

 gelatinous mass." 



In the same year Sir William Hooker, in the ' Appendix to Parry's 

 Second Voyage to the Arctic Regions,' described, under the name of 

 Palmetto, nivalis, the plant of the red snow collected in that expe- 

 dition. Sir William Hooker referred the plant to this genus, as it 

 only differed in its globules being seated on a gelatinous mass, instead 

 of being immersed in it. 



From this time to 1838 a variety of memoirs and observations 

 upon the red snow were published, chiefly on the Continent, by 

 Kunze, Unger, Martius, and other observers, but no new matter of 

 any importance was elicited. 



We now come to another and very important point in the history 

 of red snow. Hitherto all the examinations had been made on old 

 specimens of the red snow, most of them removed at a great distance 

 from the spots on which they were originally found. In August, 



1839, Mr. Shuttleworth, an English gentleman resident in Switzer- 

 land, being at Grimsel, understood that there was red snow in the 

 neighbourhood, and having a microscope with him, made observa- 

 tions on the recently procured snow. Having melted the snow and 

 placed some of the red matter on the field of the microscope, he was 

 surprised at finding, instead of the immoveable globules of an Alga, 

 an immense number of exceedingly active animalcules, not of one 

 form only, but of various sizes and forms. The results of this 

 examination he has given in an interesting paper accompanied with 

 drawings, in the ' Bibliotheque Uuiverselle de Ge'neve,' for February, 



1840. The following are the forms of Infusoria, which he was 

 enabled so detect : 1. An animalcule belonging to Ehrenberg's genus 

 Attasia, which he called A. nivalis. 2. An animalcule, red iuside, 

 with a transparent carapace, belonging to the genus Oyrjes (G. sanguineus, 

 Sh.). 3. One much smaller than the other two, moving, but resembling 

 the globules of Prolococcus. 4. One belonging to the genus Volvox. 

 Several other uucoloured species were found, but they were con- 

 sidered accidental. In addition to the animalcules, Mr. Shuttleworth 

 found bodies which he took to be true plants, and referred to the 

 Protococcus nivalis of Agardh and the P. nebuloaus of Kiitziug. 



In 1840 Professor Agassiz of Neufchatel made a visit to the glacier 

 of Aar, having taken with him a microscope. He confirmed the 

 researches of Sbuttleworth, having found all the animalcules mentioned 

 by him, and added four others to the list. Three of these are com- 

 paratively unimportant, but to the fourth great interest attaches, as 

 he supposes that the ova of this animal are the globules which have 

 been takeu for a plant, and called Protococcus, &c. This animalcule 

 is the Ihilodina roseola of Ehrenberg. It was found abundantly in 

 the lower glacier of the Aar. It has a much higher organisation than 

 the other animalcules, and contains in its inside a number of red 

 globules, which may be distinctly seen through its transparent body. 

 These globules are its ova, which, on being deposited, precisely 

 resemble the globules of Protococcus as figured by Shuttleworth and 

 others. 



In the various papers referred to above, no mention is made of 

 snow of any other colour than red. Martius however, a naturalist 

 who accompanied the French expedition to Spitzbergen, mentions 

 having found in one instance a field of green snow. It was accom- 

 panied however with the Protococcus giving a red colour. From many 

 observations Martius arrived at the conclusion that the red globules 

 of the green snow are identical with those of the red snow, and that 

 the green snow (P. viridis) and the red snow (P. nivalis) are one 

 and the same plant, only in different stages of development, but that 

 it is difficult to state which is the original. The late Professor Meyen 

 (Taylor's 'Ann. Nat. Hist.', August, 1841) remarks on this statement, 

 that these Protococci are not plants, but animals, the Euglena sanguinea 

 and E. viridis of Ehrenberg. The reason of their being so often taken 

 for plants is, that they naturally pass a great portion of their exist- 

 ence in a passive state, only occasionally under favourable circum- 

 stances starting into activity. When they do this, their spherical 



