i a THE WORLDS LUMBER ROOM. 



of volcanic origin may, no doubt, also be mingled with 

 them, since we know that fine volcanic dust may be trans- 

 ported almost any distance by currents of air. 



The ice-dust or " kryokonit," as it is proposed to call it, 

 is scattered all over the northern ice-fields, and though 

 well aware that it cannot be lost or wasted in the long run, 

 we may hardly, perhaps, be prepared to find that it is at 

 once taken in hand and turned to account. Kryokonit, 

 the meteoric dust which has been formed who can say by 

 what process ? in the far-off upper regions, descends to the 

 earth to form the soil which nourishes numerous hitherto 

 unknown ice and snow plants, besides the " red snow," with 

 whose name we are most of us familiar. This plant, which 

 is of very lowly organisation, makes its first appearance in 

 the summer as a pink flush overspreading the snow in 

 large patches, sometimes miles in extent, not only in the 

 Polar regions, but on the Alps and Pyrenees and the 

 mountains of California. 



The spores of the lower orders of plants are very tena- 

 cious of life, and are capable of bearing such extremes of 

 temperature that no climate will destroy them. You may 

 even expose them to a heat of 100 C. (212 Fahr.), or to 

 the lowest degree of cold obtainable ( 100 C.), and still, 

 though lying dormant, they will retain their vitality, and as 

 soon as they have the opportunity will grow and multiply. 



Though dwelling among snow and ice, however, they 

 need the summer sun to waken them into active life, and 

 they need more than snow and ice to live upon. Like 

 the green slime of our ponds, they belong to the order 

 of plants called Algct^ and the red snow, though so minute 



