The point at which the Humboldt Glacier enters the “Land of Washington” affords even at a distance very clear indications of its plastic or semi-solid character. The observer finds it impossible to resist the impression of fluidity conveyed by its peculiar markings. Dr. Kane very appropriately named it Cape Forbes, in honour of the illustrious son of Scotia who contributed so largely to our true knowledge of the structure and mode of progression of glaciers.
As the surface of the glacier, adds its discoverer, receded to the south, its face seemed broken with piles of earth and rock-stained rubbish, until far back in the interior it was concealed from view by the slope of a hill. But even beyond this point its continued extension was shown by the white glare or ice-blink in the sky above.
Its outline to the northward could not be so easily traced, on account of the enormous discharges at its base. The talus of its descent from the interior, looking far off to the east, ranged from 7° to 15°; so interrupted by the crevasses, however, as only in the distance to produce the effect of an inclined plane. A few black protuberances rose above the glittering surface of the snow, like islands in a foamy sea.
It could be seen, from the general inequalities of its surface, how well the huge mass adapted itself to the inequalities of the basis-country beneath. The same modifications of hill and dale were discernible as upon land. Thus grand and various in its imposing aspect, it stretches to the north until it touches the new Land of Washington, cementing together by an apparently indissoluble tie the Greenland of the Norse Vikings and the America of the Anglo-Saxon colonists.
CHAPTER V.
THE ARCTIC LANDS—FAUNA—FLORA—GREENLAND—ICELAND—NOVAIA ZEMLAIA—SIBERIA.
We have already pointed out that in the northernmost regions of the Arctic lands the year is divided into one prolonged and bitterly cold night of several months’ duration, and one glorious summer’s day extending over nine or ten weeks, which brings the scanty vegetation to a sudden maturity. We have indicated that even within the limits of perpetual snow the life of Nature is not altogether crushed out; and in support of this statement we may refer to the “red snow” which figures so often in the pages of our Arctic voyagers, though its true character was not at first apprehended.
This so-called “red snow” was found by Sir John Ross, in his first Arctic expedition in 1808, on a range of cliffs rising about 800 feet above the sea-level, and extending eight miles in length (lat. 75° N.). It was also discovered by Sir W. E. Parry in his overland expedition in 1827. The snow was tinged to the depth of several inches. Moreover, if the surface of the snow-plain, though previously of its usual spotless purity, was crushed by the pressure of the sledges and of the footsteps of the party, blood-like stains instantly arose; the impressions being sometimes of an orange hue, and sometimes more like a pale salmon tint.
It has been ascertained that this singular variation of colour is due to an immense aggregation of minute plants of the species called Protococcus nivalis; the generic name alluding to the extreme primitiveness of its organization, and the specific to the peculiar nature of its habitat. If we place a small quantity of red snow on a piece of white paper, and allow it to melt and evaporate, there will be left a residuum of granules sufficient to communicate a faint crimson tint to the paper. Examine these granules under a microscope, and they will prove to be spherical purple cells of almost inappreciable size, not more than the three-thousandth to one-thousandth part of an inch in diameter. Look more closely, and you will see that each cell has an opening, surrounded by indented or serrated lines, the smallest diameter of which measures only the five-thousandth part of an inch. When perfect, the plant, as Dr. Macmillan observes, bears a resemblance to a red-currant berry; as it decays, the red colouring matter fades into a deep orange, which is finally resolved into a brownish hue. The thickness of the wall of the cell is estimated at the twenty-thousandth part of an inch, and three hundred to four hundred of these cells might be grouped together in a smaller space than a shilling would cover. Yet each cell is a distinct individual plant; perfectly independent of others with which it may be massed; fully capable of performing for and by itself all the functions of growth and reproduction; possessing “a containing membrane which absorbs liquids and gases from the surrounding matrix or elements, a contained fluid of peculiar character formed out of these materials, and a number of excessively minute granules equivalent to spores, or, as some would say, to cellular buds, which are to become the germs of new plants.” Dr. Macmillan adds: “That one and the same primitive cell should thus minister equally to absorption, nutrition, and reproduction, is an extraordinary illustration of the fact that the smallest and simplest organized object is in itself, and, for the part it was created to perform in the operations of nature, as admirably adapted as the largest and most complicated.”
