According to Captain Ross, the Arctic mountains on which he observed the red snow, are about 600 feet high, and extend eight miles in length. The depth to which the color penetrated has been variously stated by different observers. Some found that it descended many feet beneath the surface, while others never ascertained that it spread beyond one or two inches. There is no reason to suppose that the coloring matter itself, as well as the snow, is a meteorological product, although Humboldt certainly mentions a shower of red hail, which fell at Paramo de Guanacos, in South America. Moisture is, no doubt, essential to the production of this plant, as it is to all the other algæ; but when once formed, it seems to possess the power of continued and increasing vegetation, even over rocks and stones, with only an occasional supply of fluid."*

A very different account has lately been given of the origin of red snow, which, if corroborated, will prove that the coloring matter is not a vegetable substance at all, but the excrement of a bird. Mr. Nicholson, who made an expedition to Regent's Bay in 1821, states, that he there observed crimson snow, and that it was evident, at first view, that the coloring matter lay on the surface. "This substance," says he, "lay scattered here and there in small masses, bearing some resemblance to powdered cochineal, surrounded by a lighter shade, which was produced by the coloring 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 color, and a moment's reflection convinced us that this was the excrement of the little auk, 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 red snow was now presented to us, and not a doubt remained in the mind of any that this was the correct one."t

* Edinburgh Cabinet Library,-Polar Seas and Regions, pp. 83, 84. + Magazine of Natural History, vol. ii. p. 322.

It will be at once amusing and instructive, should this view be confirmed, to discover that a substance which has been soberly treated of by naturalists as a plant, the order of which has been settled, the name of which has been added to the calendar, and on which theories have been formed, should after all prove to be nothing more than animal excrement. The showers of blood which have sometimes alarmed nations by their fall, have, in like manner, been proved to be the red ejection of a species of butterfly.

It appears that the same substance which gives the red color to snow, is occasionally detected, even during the warmth of summer, covering the brilliant white limestone of the plains. In the last-named locality, it was discovered by the Baron Wrangler, in the province of Nerike. It was believed by him to be of a different species. If, after all, it be the excrement of a bird, which I am inclined to believe, it will not be surprising that it should be found in such different localities and

seasons.

In reviewing this account of northern vegetation, it is interesting to remark the adaptations by which the general laws impressed on this department of nature are rendered consistent with the propagation and preservation of useful plants, under circumstances of climate which would render the raising of any of the ordinary kinds of the produce of the soil utterly hopeless. Among these provisions, the reader would not fail to remark, the thickened juices of the pine tribe, and their retention of their bristly foliage during the severity of winter, as means obviously intended to fit them for an ungenial climate; the abundance of mosses and lichens, endowed with qualities which render them nourishing food for man, or for the animals which contribute to his subsistence and comfort; the profusion of edible berries, and of salubrious grasses; and even the existence of beautiful flowers, which adorn the short-lived Arctic summer. How edifying is it to find, that even in the most inhospitable climes, there are traces of a Father's care in the gifts which his bounty scatters.

FIFTH WEEK-TUESDAY.

CONNEXION BETWEEN THE VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL KING

DOMS.

IN examining the character and properties of the vegeetable creation, we have only been contemplating the various provisions which the Self-Existent has made for the subsistence of the animal creation. Without the existence of animated beings, vegetation, in all its remarkable varieties, would have been but an unmeaning pageant, contrivance without an object, mechanism without use, a system of inventions and adaptations, amazing for their extent, their variety, and the depth of thought which they displayed, without any adequate end. It would be as if a magnificent and admirably furnished edifice were erected in a wilderness where there was no being to inhabit it. To communicate happiness, to inspire intelligence, and to call forth the exalted feelings of admiration and gratitude, or, in other words, to form sentient and rational beings, seem to be the only conceivable ends of creation. In the lower orders of animals, we observe the first obscure rudiments of such a design. These intentions we see still further developed in the faculties bestowed on man, and the circumstances in which he is placed in this sublunary state; but we must look beyond the present scene, and, aided by the light of revelation, take a glance into futurity, before we perceive the full scheme unfolded, or understand in what sense it is, that the great end of creation is to enable intelligent beings to glorify and enjoy their Creator.

Considered in this view, the first thing that attracts our attention is, that the organs of living creatures, and the peculiar chemical condition of their structure, are such as rendered the vegetable world necessary for their subsistence. The combination of their elements is so refined and complicated, as to require a succession of changes to fit the inorganic world for the necessary assimilation. In

their crude state, the soil and the rocks, of which the earth is composed, are not capable of sustaining animal existence. The animal organs cannot appropriate them, nor the animal powers digest them. It was necessary that these unorganized materials should undergo a process of selection and secretion before they could be suited to the support of the animal frame, and this office is assigned to the vegetable kingdom. It would be rash to say, that the Creator could not have so arranged the inorganic and animal worlds, as to make the one supply the wants of the other, without the intervention of intermediate changes; but in the arrangement actually adopted, there is an obvious and beautiful propriety, which marks it as the work of Supreme Intelligence. Vegetable existences extract, from the earth and atmosphere, the simple food furnished by Nature, which consists chiefly of water, air, and carbonic acid; they elaborate these elements in their secretive organs, and causing them to undergo various modifications, convert them into aliments, which not only maintain their own vitality, but prepare them as the means of subsistence to the higher world of animals. These animals, again, are endowed with organs and functions capable of receiving such aliments, and converting them to their own use, so as to complete a system, wonderful at once for its simplicity and complexness. Such is the nature of the connexion between the two worlds of organized existences.

But, further, animal life might have been preserved in all its varieties by a single order of plants, had this been the whole intention. But how diversified are the forms and properties which have actually been produced! This was not without design. With regard to man, I have already pointed out very many advantages, embracing bodily vigor, mental improvement, and varied enjoyment, which result from such diversity. Others will appear at every step of our progress in contemplating the works of the Creator. With regard to the inferior animals, it is not so easy to speak with precision; but when it is remembered, that for all the varieties of the vegetable world, there are corresponding varieties among animals, we cannot withhold our conviction, that there are here contrivances and adap

tations; and, on considering the character of the Creator, as reflected from the works whose objects we are enabled to trace, we feel warranted to add, that these contrivances and adaptations are wise and benevolent.

It is to the animal world, then, that we must direct our view, if we would rightly estimate the mighty plan of creation. Vegetation, considered in its primary intention, is nothing more than a subservient contrivance, by which the animal frame shall be mechanically sustained, its organization developed, and its waste repaired. If, with this, be united varied enjoyments, arising from the exercise of the functions and senses, it is because a paternal God was pleased, in the exuberance of his bounty, to cause these subordinate arrangements to be directly conducive to the ends of animal existence, as well as to its means. But, so far as the human race is concerned, even the pleasures which they derive from their connexion with the vegetable world are but subordinate to a much higher object, and can only be regarded as faint and scattered emanations from the Great Source of light and happiness, the foretaste of enjoyments unalloyed and endless.

Considered, then, as an end, the vegetable world was called into existence, and endowed with all its properties, exclusively with reference to the animal world; although the various relations and fitnesses, which subsist among the diversified orders of the former with regard to each other, may well form a subject of separate investigation. Vegetation exists for the use of living beings. Whatever properties it possesses, are their inheritance, made and maintained expressly for them. Whether a plant be succulent or dry, hard or soft; whether it be a grass, a flower, a shrub, or a tree; whatever juices it selects from the earth; whatever chemical changes these juices undergo in the leaves or other secretory organs; whatever be the form it assumes, the colors it reflects, or the odor it exhales, it is not for itself or its fellows that it thus exists, but for another world, the world of sentient beings.

This, considered in itself, is a very remarkable arrangement, clearly indicating design; and when the particulars are examined, not only is this general view confirmed,