The Alaska daily empire., 1918-03-11
Evidence That They Do Exist and Have Their Being in the Great
 Glaciers.
so SAYS PROFESSOR
All Chechacoes Are WC- tims of the lCe-Worm Joke from Sour
 doughs.

There is a book in the Juneau Public Library entitled Mount Rainier, a Record of Explorations" ," The author of the book is Edmond S. Meany, professor of history in the University of Washington and president of the Mountaineers, a we'll known organization in the State of Washington which annually makes ascents of different peaks
 At page PIP of the, book men, tioned the following statement is made and interested persons are in- vited to secure the book0from the li- brary and read for themselvs:
 "When snow assumes the mushy 'wet-sugar' state, it is melting in formally as well as at it's outer surface, owing both to the water that soaks into it and to the warm ing of the air enclosed within it's lnnumerable pores (which tiny air spaces, by the way, give the snow it's brilliant whiteness). Snow in this condition has, paradoxical though it may sound, temperature q few tenths of a degree higher than the melting point-a fact re- gently established by delicate tenn perature measurements made on Eu- ropean glaciers. It is this singu- lar fact, no doubt, that explains how so many minute organisms are able to flourish and propagate in summer on the lower portions of many ela- ciers. It may be of interest to di- gress here briefly in order to speak of these little known though com mon forms of life.
 Several species of insects are among the regular inhabitants of glaciers. Most of them belong to very low order-the Springtails, or Thysanura and are 20 minute that in spite of their dark color they escape the attention of most passers-by. If one looks closely, however, they may readily be ob- served hopping about like minia- ture fieas or wriggling deftly into | the cavities of the snow. It seems | to incommode them but little if in their acrobatic jumps they occas- i ionally alight in puddle or in Till, for they are thickly clad with furry scales that prevent them from getting wet-just as duck is kept dry by its greasy feathers.
 Especially plentiful on the low CT parts of the Rainier glaciers, and more readily recognized, are slen- der dark brown worms of the genus Mesenchytraeus about one inch in length. Millions and millions of | them may be seen on favorable days ! in July and August writhing on the surface of the ice, evidently breed ing there and feeding on the or ganic matter blown upon the gla- cier in the form of dust. So es- sential to their existence isN the chill of the ice that they enter sev- eral inches, and sometimes many feet below the surface on days when the sum is particularly hot, reap bearing late in the afternoon.
 Mention also deserves to be made of that miscroscoptic plant Proto- coccus niyalis, which is responsible for the mysterious pink or light. rose-colored patches so often met with on glaciers-the red snow of former superstition. Each patch represents a colony or culture com prising billions of individuals. It is probable that they represent but small fraction of the total mi erofora thriving on the snow, the other species remaining invisible for lack of conspicuous color" The foregoing statement of facts