Vol. XI.-No. 3. 



AND IIOIITICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



21 



SHOWERS OF BLOOD, RED 



SNOW, &c. 

 It is not a little rcmailtable, tliat vvlien insects 

 jire evolved from tlie pupa state, tliey always rlis- 

 riiarge some substance. It i.i important to re- 

 marU, that the matter voitlcil at this period by 

 many butterflies (Vanessa', &r,J is of a red col- 

 or, resembling blood, while lliat of several mollis 

 is orange or whitish. It coidd not readily be sup- 

 posed that this should become the object of super- 

 stitious terror, yet so it has been in more instances 

 than one. jMouflet tells us, from Sleidan, that in 

 the year 1553 a prodigious tiudtitudo of hutteriiies 

 swarmed throughout a great portion of Germany, 

 and sjirinkled jdants, leaves, buildings, clothes, 

 nmX men, with bloody drops as if it had rained 

 blood.* Several historians, indeed, have record- 

 ed showers of blood among the prodigies which 

 have struck nations with consternation, as the sup- 

 posed omen of the destruction of cities and the 

 overthrow of empires. About the beginning of 

 .July, J608, one of these showers of bloo<l was 

 supposed to have fallen in the suburbs of Ai.\-,and 

 for many miles around it, and particularly the 

 walls of a churchyard were spotted with the 

 blood. This occurrence would, no doubt, have 

 been chronicled in history as a supernatural prod- 

 igy, had not Aix possessed at this time, in RI. 

 Peircsc, a philosopher, who, in the eager pursuit 

 of all kinds of knowledge, had not neglected the 

 study of insects. It is accordingly related, in the 

 curious life of Peiresc by Gassen<li, that he had, 

 about the time of the ruujored shower of blood, 

 happened to find a large chrysalis, the beauty of 

 which made him preserve jt in a box. Sotne time 

 nfter, hearing a noise in the box, he opened it and 

 found a fine butterfly, which had let't upon the 

 bottom a red stain of considerable magnitude, and 

 apparently of exactly the same nature with the 

 (h-ops on the stones, popularly su|)p(>scd to be 

 blood. He remarked, at the same time, that there 

 were countless numbers of butterflies flying about, 

 which confirmed him in the belief of liis having 

 discovered the true cause ; and this was furlher 

 corroborated by his finding none of the red drops 

 iu the heart of the city, where the butterflies were 

 rarely seen. He also remarked, that the drops 

 were never on tiles, and seldom on tlie upper |)art 

 of a stone, as they inust have been had they fallen 

 from the heavens, but usually appeared in cavities 

 and parts protected by some angular projection. 

 What Peiresc had thus ascertained, he lost no 

 time in disclosing to many persons of knowledge 

 and curiosity, who had been puzzling themselves 

 to account for the circumstance oy far-feifhed 

 reasonings, such a supposed vapor which hail car- 

 ried np a supposed red earth into the air that bad 

 tinged the rain ;— no less wide of the truth than 

 tlie popul.ir superstition which ascribeil it to mag- 

 ic, or to the devil himself.f Those who arc curi- 

 ous to verify the discovery, as we may call it, of 

 Peiresc, may easily do so by rearing any of the 

 spinous caterpillars which feed on iha "nellln till 

 they are transformed into the butterfly. We have 

 ,-fl''*"<^ssed the circumstance in innumerable instan- 



-Bfltis a curious and interesting probability, that 

 the. crimson snow of the Alpine and Arctic, re- 

 gions, which has recently excited so iimch scimi- 

 tific inquiry, should he referable to a somewhat 

 einuiar cause, — a circumstance which will apol- 



* iMouflfet, Tlieatr. Ins. 107. 

 t Kedumup, vol. i. p. 638. 



ogize for our taking some notice of it here by way 

 of illustration. According to Professor Agardh, 

 red snow is very conimon in all the al|)ine dis- 

 tricts of Europe, and is probably of the same na- 

 ture with that brought from the jiolar regions by 

 Captain Ross. Saussure saw it in abundance on 

 .Hoiit Brevern, in Switzerlanrl, and elsewhere; 

 Raruoiid found it on the Pyrenees ; and Sommcr- 

 felclt in Norway. In March, 1808, the wliole 

 country about Cadone, Belluno, and Ftliri, is re- 

 |)orted to have been covered in a single night with 

 rose-culoied snow; and at the same time a sim- 

 ilar shosvcr was witnessed on the mountains of 

 Valtelin, Brescia, Cariuthia, and Tyrol. But tlie 

 mitirt remarkable red snow shower was that which 

 fell on the night between the 14lh and 15ih of 

 March, 1823, in Calabria, in Abruzzo, in Tuscan}', 

 at Bologna, and through the w hole cliain of the 

 Ajipennines. 



Upon the return of Captain Ross from the Polar 

 expedition some years ago, the sjieciinens of red 

 snow which he brought home were examined by 

 three of our most distinguished observers, Wollas- 

 ton, Bauer, and Robert Brown, who all came to 

 the conclusion that it was of a vegetable nature, 

 hut difl^ered as to its botanical characteristics. Dr 

 Wollaston supposed it to be the seeil of some 

 moss; fllr Brown was inclined to consider it an 

 alga;, related to Tremella cruenta, a common na- 

 tive plant; while Mr Bauer thought it was a fun- 

 gus of the genus Uredo. Professor A^'anlh refers 

 it with Brown to the lowest order of «lgfe, but 

 st.'inding as a distinct genus upon the very limits 

 of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Saussure, 

 indeed, from finding that the red snovf 'of the 

 Alps gave out, when burnt, a smell like 11181 of 

 plants, concluded lliat it was of vegetable origin, 

 and supposed it to consist of the farina of some 

 plant, though he could not trace it to its source. 

 Baron Wrangel, again, who discovered. a produc- 

 tion similar or identical with Agardh's Protococ- 

 cus nivalis growing upon limestone rocks, men- 

 tions that it was easily detached when placed un- 

 der water, and in three days it was converted into 

 animated globules like infusory animalcules, which 

 swam about and were made prey of by other in- 

 fusoria. Professor Nees von Esenbeck of Bonn, 

 is inclined to think that the minute red globules, 

 of which the Prolococciis consists, are the vegeta- 

 ble state of bodies which had gone through a pre- 

 vious uniirial existence. 



The Rev. W. Scoresby, on the other hand, con- 

 jectures that the red color of the snow may be 

 traced to the same cause as the orange-colored 

 ice of the polar seas, which arises from innumer- 

 able minute animals belonging to the Kadiata, and 

 similar to the BeroS globidosa of Lamarck. It is 

 about the size of a pin's head, transparent, and 

 marked with twelve brownish patches of dots. In 

 olive-green sea water, he estimated .110,592 of 

 these in a cubic foot.* 



Agardh remarks, that it is agreed upon all hands 

 that the crimson snow always falls in the night, 

 from which he infers that it has not been actually 

 seen to fall. He thinks it is called into exislenec 

 by the vivifying power of the sun'i light, after its 

 warmth has caused the snow to dissolve, accom- 

 panied by the incomprehensible power in wliite 

 snow of producing a color.f 



Reaumur says, with much justice, on another 

 occasion, that an ordinary spectator frequently dis- 



covers what has escaped the notice of the best 

 i observers, and so it should seem it has happened 

 in the present case, — the learned naturalist just 

 mentioned having gone as wide of the facts, as the 

 philosophers at Aix in accoiiniing for the supposed 

 shower of blood. Mr Thomas Nicholscui, accoro- 

 panied with two other gentlemen, made an excur- 

 sion lhe24lh July, ]S21, to Sowallick Point, near 

 Bushman's Island, in Prince Regent'.s Bay, in 

 quest of meteoric iron. "The summit of the hill," 

 he says, "forming the point, is covered with huge 

 masses of granite, whilst the aide which forms a 

 gentle declivity towanis the bay was covered with 

 crimson snow. It was evident, at first view, that 

 this color was imparted to the snow by a sub- 

 stance lying on the surface. This substance lay 

 scattered here and there in small masses, bearing 

 some resemblance to ])owdered cochineal, sur- 

 rounded by a lighter shade, which was produced 

 by the coloring matter being partly dissolved and 

 difl^used by the deliquescent snow. During this 

 examination our hats and upper garments were 

 observed to be daubed with a substance of a sim- 

 ilar red color, and a moment's reflection convinc- 

 ed us that this was the excrement of the little 

 auk ( Uria alle, Temminck,) myriads of which were 

 continually flying over our heads, having their 

 nests among the loose masses of granite. A ready 

 explanation of the origin of the red snow wasnovr 

 presented^to us, and not a doubt remained in the 

 mind of any that this was the correct one. The 

 snow on the mountains of higher elevation than 

 the nests of these birtls was perfectly while, anda 

 ravine at a short distance, which was filled with 

 snow from top to bottom, but which aflbrded no 

 liiding-place for these birds to form their ncBta, 

 [ircsented an appearance uniformly white."* 



This testi:.;u!iy seems to be as clear and indis- 

 putable as the explanation given by Peiresc of the 

 ejccta of the butterflies at Aix. But though it 

 will account, pcrhajis, for the red snow of the po- 

 lar regions, it will not explain thai of the Alps, the 

 A|ipcnnin<s, and the Pyrenees, w liicli are not, so 

 far as we know, visited by the little auk. Thus 

 the matter at present rests, till it be elucidated by 

 further observations. — Library of Entertaining 

 Knowledge. 



Polished Pavements. — In Boston great precau- 

 tions are taken by the Board of Health against 

 the admission of the cholera — and if cleanliness is" 

 a preventive the citizens of Boston will suflTer 

 but litlle from the disease. During a brief -visit 

 to the metropolis of New England last week, we 

 were absolutely astonished to find the pavements 

 of the principal streets as free from filth and dust 

 as the well swept .pavements of a couri-yard. In- 

 deed the stones art; so snioothly polished by con- 

 slant sweeping, that a person crossing a street 

 must take good heed, or he will ,he astonished to 

 find his heels up[iermost. — Exiter .Vews Letter. 



' Jameson's Edin. Journ., Jan. 1829, p. 56. 

 1 Loudou's £Bi:ycl. ol PUnla, i'roiocoeeut. 



Ameriran Cheese. — A small importation of chees- 

 es from Boston was lately mad<: into this part of 

 the country, liy way of New York, which, froni 

 their scarcity, have sold readily at good prices. 

 They are of the size of an ordinary millstone ; and 

 each weigh from four to five stone. Allhougb 

 rather dry, they are of excrllcni flnxor, and sell at 

 14 shillings per sinne. ."V couple were yesterday 

 exhibited for sale iu the Bazaar. — Clasgow Cvtt- 



""■■ .Ji 



' .Mag. of Nat. Hist,, vol. ii. p. 322. ' '^ 



