PAPILIONID^E — BUTTERFLIES, 221 



NicoU, in bis Diary, p. 8, informs us that on the 28th of 

 May, 1650, "there rained blood the space of three miles in 

 the Earl of Buccleuch's bounds (Scoth^nd), near the EiigUsh 

 border, which was verelied in presence of the Committee of 

 State. "^ 



We learn from Fountainhall that on Sunday, May 1st, 

 IGSt, a young woman of noted piety, Janet Fraser by name, 

 the daughter of a weaver in the parish of Closeburn, Dum- 

 friesshire, went out to the fields with a young female com- 

 panion, and sat down to read the Bible not far from her 

 father's house. Feeling thirsty, she went to the river-side 

 (the Nith) to get a drink, leaving her Bible open at the 

 place where she had been reading, which presented the 

 verses of the 34th chapter of Isaiah, beginning — "My sword 

 shall be bathed in heaven : behold, it shall come down upon 

 Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment," 

 etc. On returning, she found a patch of something like 

 blood covering this very text. In great surprise, she car- 

 ried the book home, where a young man tasted the substance 

 with his tongue, and found it of a saltless or insipid flavor. 

 On the two succeeding Sundays, while the same girl was 

 reading the Bible in the open air, similar blotches of matter, 

 like blood, fell upon the leaves. She did not perceive it in 

 the act of falling till it was about an inch from the book. 

 ''It is not blood," our informant adds, "for it is as tough as 



quescent snow. During this examination our hats and upper gar- 

 ments were observed to be daubed with a substance of a similar 

 red colour, and a moment's reflection convinced us that this was the 

 excrement of the little Auk ( Uria alle, Temmink), 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 was now 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 birds was 

 perfectly white, and a ravine at a short distance, which was filled 

 with snow from top to bottom, but which afl'orded no hiding-place 

 for these birds to form their nests, presented an appearance uni- 

 formly white." 



This testimony seems to be as clear and indisputable as the ex- 

 planation given by Peiresc of the ejecta of the Butterflies at Aix. 

 But though it will account, perhaps, for the red snow of the polar 

 regions, it will not explain that of the Alps, the Apennines, and 

 the Pyrenees, which are not, so far as is known, visited by the little 

 Auk. — Vide Ins. Transf., p. 352-5. 



1 Chamb. Domes, Annals of ScotL, ii. 199. 



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