1835.] BED SNOW. 309 



Wlicu about half-way up we met a large party with seventy 

 loaded mules. It was interesting to hear the wild cries of the 

 muleteers, and to watch the long descending string of the animals ; 

 they appeared so diminutive, there being nothing but the bleak 

 mountains with which they could be compared. When near the 

 summit, the wind, as generally happens, was impetuous and 

 extremely cold. On each side of the ridge we had to pass over 

 broad bands of perpetual snow, which were now soon to be covered 

 by a fresh layer. When we reached the crest and looked back- 

 wards, a glorious view was presented. The atmosphere resplcn- 

 dently clear ; the sky an intense blue ; the profound valleys ; the 

 wild broken forms ; the heaps of ruins, piled up during the lapse 

 of ages; the bright-coloured rocks, contrasted with the quiet 

 mountains of snow; all these together produced a scene no one 

 could have imagined. Neither plant nor bird, excepting a few 

 condors wheeling around the higher pinnacles, distracted my 

 attention from the inanimate mass. I felt glad that I was alone : 

 it was like watching a thunderstorm, or hearing in full orchestra 

 a chorus of the Messiah. 



On several patches of the snow I found the Protococcus nivalis, 

 or red snow, so well known from the accounts of Arctic navigators. 

 My attention was called to it, by observing the footsteps of the 

 mules stained a pale red, as if their hoofs had been slightly bloody. 

 I at first thought that it was owing to dust blown from the sur- 

 rounding mountains of red porphyry; for from the magnifying 

 power of the crystals of snow, the groups of these microscopical 

 plants appeared like coarse particles. The snow was coloured only 

 where it had thawed very rapidly, or had been accidentally crushed. 

 A little rubbed on paper gave it a faint rose tinge mingled with a 

 little brick-red. I afterwards scraped some off the paper, and found 

 that it consisted of groups of little spheres in colourless cases, each 

 the thousandth part of an inch in diameter. 



The wind on the crest of the Peuquenes, as just remarked, is 

 generally impetuous and very cold: it is said* to blow steadily 

 from the westward or Pacific side. As the observations have been 

 chiefly made in summer, this wind must be an upper and return 

 current. The Peak of Teneriffe, with a less elevation, and situated 

 in lat. 28, in like manner falls within an upper return stream. At 



* Dr. Gillies in Journ. of Nat. and Geograph. Science, Aug., 1830. This 

 author gives the heights of the Passes. 



