30 RED SNOW. RED SNOW. 31
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lie attention at the time, that the same
phenomenon occurs every year in the Alps,
but at a season when it is not often exposed
to the view of travellers. Our guide
said that its appearance was like that of
minute red grains scattered on the snow ;
they were to be seen in March, and gene-
raily disappeared about the end of May or
the beginning of June. Several persons
informed me that they had seen this red
snow, and on referring to Saussure, I find
he has given a very full account of it, as
occurring in Mont Breven, and also on the
Great St. Bernard. The powder or grains
penetrate two or three inches into the
snow, and are of a very lively red colour : it
occurs chiefly where the snow lies in a concavity,
it is deepest near the centre, and
very faint upon the borders, as if it had
been carried down from the edges towards
the lower parts, by a partial melting o f the
snow. On the return of Captain Boss, the
residue of some of the red snow from Baffin’s
Bay, after the water was evaporated,
was examined, and the substance was said
to be oily, and the product of some vegetable.
Saussure had come to the same
conclusion in 1788, from a series of experiments
on forty grains of this powder. See
Voyages dans les Alpes, tom. ii. p. 44. to
48. Saussure was inclined to believe, that
the red powder was the pollen of some
alpine plant, but it is a subject still involved
in obscurity, as there is no plant
known in Switzerland, which yields such a
powder. H e concludes with the following
queries : “ J ’ai déjà dit que j ’ai trouvé
cette poudre répandue sur les neiges de
différentes Alpes, et toujours avec la même
couleur, et toutes les mêmes apparences ;
mais est-elle absolument universelle ? Se
trouve-t-elle sur les neiges élévés de pays et
de climats très différens ? sur les Cordillères,
par exemple ? C’est ce qu’il seroit
bien intéressant de vérifier. Car enfin,
quoiqu’il me paroisse bien probable que
c’est une poussière d’étamines, il ne seroit
point encore impossible que ce ne fut une
terre séparée de la neige même, et imprégnée
de matières inflammables, par une
combinaison immédiate de la lumière, qui
brille avec tant de vivacité dans l’air pur
de ces hautes régions.” Perhaps it may appear
as probable, that this powder is deposited
by some species of fly. Mont Breven,
where the red snow occurs most abun