Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/85

Rh Antarctic lands. "On several occasions, notably on December 18th and 20th, 1892, I saw bergs which were fringed with pale brown streaks, like a vein apparently sandwiched in their main mass," and I believe that this coloration was due to diatoms or some other forms of algæ. This observation refers to tops of bergs that were possibly 150 feet above sea-level, and which had not been overturned. The tops being inaccessible, it was impossible to get a specimen. But I have seen similar coloration on land ice in the north.

One of the most remarkable instances of coloration of ice and snow on the land is what is known as "red snow," which is due to a blood-red microscopic alga known as Sphærella nivalis. I have seen acres of ice and snow red with this alga in Prince Charles Foreland, and other parts of Spitsbergen, as well as in Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, and on one occasion we found small patches at Scotia Bay in the South Orkneys. I have not seen it on other Antarctic lands I have visited, and am not aware that other explorers, except Dr. Charcot, who saw it in Western Graham Land, and Mr. Priestly, have recorded its presence. Mr. James Murray, who accompanied Sir Ernest Shackleton, writes to me saying: "I never saw red snow, but our geologist, Priestly, saw the snow smeared with