THE SPRING AND SUATMER OE iSg4 503 



sort of ice preponderates, while pure white floes, without 

 any traces of a dirty brown on their surface, are rare. 

 I imagained this brown color must be due to the 

 organisms I found in the newly-frozen, brownish-red 

 ice last autumn (October); but the specimens I took 



BLESSING GOES OFF IN SEARCH OF ALG/^ 



{From a Photograph) 



to-day consist, for the most part, of mineral dust mingled 

 with diatoms and other ingredients of organic origin.* 



" Blessing collected several specimens on the upper 

 surface of the ice earlier in the summer, and came to 



* The same kind of dust that I found on the ice on the east coast of 

 Greenland, which is mentioned in the Introduction to this book, p. 39. 



