[750.] Moufet, p. 107.
[751.] Hone’s Ev. Day Book, p. 1127.
[752.] Chambers’ Domest. Annals of Scotland, ii. 489.
[753.] Gassendi’s Life of Peireskius, p. 123–5; and Reaumur, i. 638, 667.
[754.] Shaw, Zool., vi. 206.
[755.] The origin of red snow has likewise been a puzzle and query for ages, and many theories have been advanced by philosophers and naturalists to account for it. To those interested in the solution of this phenomenon, the following extract from the Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. ii. p. 322, may be curious, if not satisfactory. Mr. Thomas Nicholson, accompanied with two other gentlemen, made an excursion the 24th July, 1821, to Sowallick Point, near Bushman’s Island, in Prince Regent’s Bay, in quest of meteoric iron. “The summit of the hill,” he says, “forming the point, is covered with huge masses of granite, whilst the side, which forms a gentle declivity to the bay, was covered with crimson snow. It was evident, at first view, that this colour was imparted to the snow by a substance lying on the surface. This substance lay scattered here and there in small masses, bearing some resemblance to powdered cochineal, surrounded by a lighter shade, which was produced by the colouring matter being partly dissolved and diffused by the deliquescent snow. During this examination our hats and upper garments were observed to be daubed with a substance of a similar red colour, and a moment’s reflection convinced us that this was the excrement of the little Auk (Uria alle, Temmink), myriads of which were continually flying over our heads, having their nests among the loose masses of granite. A ready explanation of the origin of the red snow was now presented to us, and not a doubt remained in the mind of any that this was the correct one. The snow on the mountains of higher elevation than the nests of these birds was perfectly white, and a ravine at a short distance, which was filled with snow from top to bottom, but which afforded no hiding-place for these birds to form their nests, presented an appearance uniformly white.”
This testimony seems to be as clear and indisputable as the explanation given by Peiresc of the ejecta of the Butterflies at Aix. But though it will account, perhaps, for the red snow of the polar regions, it will not explain that of the Alps, the Apennines, and the Pyrenees, which are not, so far as is known, visited by the little Auk.—Vide Ins. Transf., p. 352–5.
[756.] Chamb. Domes. Annals of Scotl., ii. 199.
[757.] Chamb. Domes. Annals of Scotl., ii. 447–8.
[758.] Gent. Mag., xxxiv. 496.