74 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



the coast glaciers of Greenland. Since that time, this microorganism 

 has been found in several different localities in Europe, and I have 

 found it occasionally on the glaciers of the interior but never in suffi- 

 cient quantities to form the ice-bloom of the coastal glaciers. 



Here I had the opportunity of studying another striking phenome- 

 non of the permanent snow regions of Alaska — colored snow, espe- 

 cially red snow. Above Valdez, around the Thompson Pass, the snow- 

 fields glitter with a reddish color in the beginning of August. The 

 snow was red not only on the surface, but also to a depth of several 

 inches and even in one place to a depth of 2 feet, caused by the pres- 

 ence of millions of tiny plants, Chlamydomonas nivalis. The snow on 

 Thompson Pass looks as though it had been sprinkled with red pepper, 

 differing in this respect from the red of other snowfields, which is 

 usually a light raspberry red. 



The life of the microorganisms is not yet precisely known. Hereto- 

 fore it has been necessary to conduct investigations in the field, as 

 these organisms could not be cultivated in laboratories, and field-work 

 in the regions of permanent snow and ice is greatly handicapped by 

 the difficulty of transporting the necessary apparatus. However, a 

 high mountain laboratory has been built in Switzerland on the Jung- 

 frau Pass, 11,382 feet high, which is very helpful to research on 

 cryovegetation. It would be necessary to build many more such 

 laboratories in the vicinity of permanent ice and snow in order to carry 

 on continuous study of life under such extreme conditions. 



After a fortnight's stay, I left Valdez by steamer for Juneau to 

 continue my research in the Coast Ranges. The snowfields of the 

 mountain above Juneau arc very interesting biologically. Here for the 

 first time I saw masses of tiny snow fleas. The surface of the snow was 

 gray, and the fleas were piled up about half an inch deep and were 

 rushing about like bees in the hive. The whole mass was of a deep 

 gray-violet color. 



1 visited Mendenhall ( ilacier and found there quantities of the Ancy- 

 clonema, which I had aiso found on Valdez ( Ilacier. 



I left Juneau at the end of August and returned to Seattle, bringing 

 with me for future study a large and interesting collection of snow 

 algae from Alaska in small bottles preserved with formalin. 



