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The ItaHan Giornah di Fisica, Nov. and Dec. 1818, contains some
very interesting accounts of red snow which feU on the Italian Alps
and on the Apennines, which we shaU mention here, as they are less ge
ner^y known. In March 1808, the whole country around Cadore,
Belhmo, and Feltri, was covered in one night, to the depth of twenty
centimetres, with a rose-coloured snow. A pure white snow fell before
and afterwards, so that the coloured snow formed an intermediate stratum.
The same fact was recorded at the same time on the mountains
of Veltelin, Brescia, Krain and Tyrol. A similar one occurred at Toi-
mezzo in the Friaul, between the Sth and 6th of March 1803 ; and a
more remarkable one still, in the night between the 14th and 15th of
Mai-ch 1813, in Calabria, Abruzzo, Tuscany, and Bologna, consequently
along the whole chain of the Apennines. On the 15th of April red
snow fell on the mountain of Tonal in Italy.
From the above account, it is evident that this phenomenon is not
unfrequent, and that the red snow discovered in Baffin’s Bay, in 75° 54'
N. Latitude, and 67° 15' W. Longitude, hy Captain Ross, derived the
greater part of its interest from the celebrity of those botanists and
chemists by whom it was so carefuUy examined, and it was the result
of their examinations that raised so many conjectures regardinoi its
origin.
According to Captain Ross, the mountains which were covered by
the red snow are about eight English miles long, and about 600 feet in
height. The red snow was found to penetrate in some places to a depth
of 10 or 12 feet, and seemed to have existed long in the same state.
This is all the information we possess relative to the red snow in its
natural situation ; from chemical analysis, however, some account of
Its nature might be reasonably expected. By this means, D e S a u s s u r e
had already ascertained the colouring matter of the red snow of the Alps
to emit a smell, when exposed to heat, like that of burnt vegetable substances
; and this circumstance, together with distillation in alcohol, led
him to draw the conclusion that the matter was of a vegetable origin,
and perhaps the farina of some plant, although he could not particulal
rise any plant with red pollen, nor conjecture how it could have been
carried to so great an elevation.
T he Italian naturalists who examined the red snow we have already
mentioned as having fallen in Italy, found it to contain süiceous earth,
clay, and an oxide of iron, as well as a considerable proportion of some
organic substance. Such also were the products of an analysis made
by S e m e n t i n i of a shower o f hlood which feU in Calabria ; nor did
W o l l a s t o n and T h e n a r d in their examination of the red snow
brought home by Captain Ross, ai'rive at any other results, and the
former suggested that it might contain the seeds of a moss.
Prom the chemist this curious substance passed into the hands of the
botanist. The celebrated F r a n c i s B a u e r communicated a full description
of it to Mr B r a n d e , the Secretary of the Royal Society, for publication
in the Journal of Science and Arts, No. XIV. The similarity
in regard to form as well as chemical analysis, induced him to conclude
that the colouring matter was a fungus of the genus Uredo. He accordingly
names it Uredo nivalis, and gives it a place near Ustilago se-
getum of D i t m a r .
Mr R o b e r t B r o w n had indeed previously expressed his opinion
that it might eventually prove an Alga, from its great resemblance to
Tremella cruenta, Eng. Bot., a fact which Mr B a d e r does not seem
to be aware of.
S p b e n g e l ’s conjecture, that it more nearly approaches Vaucheria
radicata, Ag. seems to have less foundation than any other.
In numerous examinations I have had occasion to make of the Algce,
the true nature of this substance has frequently occurred to me as
a perplexing question; for never having seen any thing with which it
might be compared, I could never find a satisfactory answer. The opinion,
however, of Mr R. B r o w n , that it should be classed with the Al-
gce, always appeared to me to be the most correct.
At length I received from the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm,
a treatise by Baron Wr a n g e l on a new species of Lichen, which
he named Lepraria hermesina, and observed that L in n a e u s had confounded
it with the Byssus jolithus. Between the new lichen and the
Uredo nivalis I found a very striking similarity, and in my report upon
the treatise I not only expressed this opinion, but pronounced the
newly discribed plant to be an Alga. Yet I had neither seen the Lep
r a r ia kermesina of Baron W r a n g e l , nor the colouring substance of
the red snow; and my judgment was formed entirely upon the very
minute description of Baron W r a n g e l . At length I was enabled to
satisfy myself, for in the summer of 1823, which I passed at Stockholm,
Professor B e r z e l iu s gave me some of the colouring matter of
the red snow, which had been sent to him by W o l l a s t o n , and the Baron
shewed me his Lepraria kermesina.
The Uredo nivalis along with the melted snow, had been preserved
in a welL-closed and sealed phial, and had not been opened. The Uredo
nivalis had neither lost its form nor red colour during five years.
The water was perfectly fresh, and had no smell. When at rest, the
colouring matter remained at the bottom, in the form of a brownish sediment,
two or three lines in thickness, leaving the water quite clear;
but on the least motion the red particles became mingled with it.
Anxious to obtain an accurate examination of this remarkable substance,
I placed a drop of the water mixed with the brownish-red par