Natural History — Botany. 4)23 
the human race, with the gigantic megatheria, elks, and ele- 
phants. 
30. Wolves of HudsorCs Bay. — Mr Macnab informs us, that 
in Hudson’s Bay there are three varieties of the species, distin- 
guished by the size of their skins, and colour of the fur. In two 
kinds the colours of the pelt are alike, the greatest number are 
grey, interspersed with black hairs, particularly about the upper 
part of the hind legs ; a few of both sizes are found black, and 
some of a dingey- white ; the largest are always in woody regions, 
seldom seen in numbers together; seven is the greatest assemblage 
ever seen at one time The small sized are found in the plains 
and boundless prairies where the buffaloes resort : there they are 
numerous, and are often seen in dozens, annoying and feeding 
on these animals. These never change to a white colour in winter. 
The third are of a beautiful white, like the arctic fox, the 
fur being much longer, thicker, and more valuable ; they 
are never found but in sterile and desert regions, where the so- 
litary Esquimaux ranges the dreary waste. 
BOTANY. 
31. Red Snow found to he produced hy a Fung'us (f the ge-^- 
nus Uredo. — Mr Francis Bauer, whose dexterity in the use of 
the microscope is well known, has published in the Quarterly 
Journal, xiv. p. 222. a series of microscopical observations 
on the red snow found in Baffin’s Bay by Captain Ross. He 
has put it beyond a doubt, that the colouring particles consist of 
a new species of Uredo, which grows upon the snow, and to which 
he has given the appropriate name of Uredo nivalis. He found 
the real diameter of an individual full-grown globule of this fun- 
gus to be the one thousand six hundredth part fan inch. Hence, 
in order to cover a single square inch, two million five hundred 
a/nd sixty thousand of these are necessary. 
IV. GENERAL SCIENCE. 
32. Detonating Mud in South America. — Don Carlos del 
Pozo has discovered in the Llanos of Monai, at the bottom of 
the Quebrada de Moroturo a stratum of clayey earth, which, 
inflames spontaneously when slightly moistened, and exposed for 
