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XIX. NOTICE OF THE ANIMALCULES OF THE RED SNOW.* 



By Dr. C. Vogt. 



THE researches of Mr. Shuttle worth, published in the Bibl. Univ. 1840, 

 on the colouring matter of red snow, show, that the red-coloured snow 

 of our Alps is not solely vegetable, but that it contains a great number 

 of animals. But the observations of this botanist, although very exact, 

 have not since been repeated a sufficient number of times, nor in a suf- 

 ficient number of localities, to view them otherwise than the first steps 

 towards facts, which throw a new light on the study of the microscopic 

 Fauna. A number of details remained for further investigation, and as 

 M. Agassiz made a prolonged visit at the glacier of the Aar, we took with 

 us Ehrenberg's great work on Infusoria, and two microscopes, with a view 

 to study the red snow in a fresh state, and to compare the same from 

 different localities, wherever it was to be met with. The results we 

 have obtained are by no means unimportant, as regards the new and 

 curious forms that we have discovered, and the observations we have 

 made on their mode of life, and the facts connected with the develop- 

 ment and reproduction of these extraordinary beings, of which their 

 presence in the midst of the eternal snow is in some manner a dementi 

 given to the general ideas which are admitted on the conditions of the 

 existence of organic beings. The circumstance which surprised us 

 more than all, was the diversity of form exhibited by individuals col- 

 lected from various localities. It is probable that each station possesses 

 beings proper to it, associated with a certain number of other types 

 more generally distributed. 



The red snow was found this year (August 1 840) in great abundance 

 on the glaciers which descend in the valley of the Aar. We also ob- 

 served it at the extremity of the glacier of Oberaar, on the glacier of 

 Finsteraar, on the plains of snow which border the west flank of Siedel- 

 horn, and in numerous points of the lower glacier of the Aar, between 

 others near to that of Abshwung, in the neighbourhood of the hotel of 

 Neuchatelois, near the crystal grottoes, on the lower glacier of Grin- 

 delwald, &c. The following are the organisms which we met with in 

 these situations : 



1. The Infusoria called Astasia nivalis by Shuttle worth, see the 3rd 



* From the Bibl. Univ. de Geneve, 21st May, 1841. 

 VOL. I. G 



