mn from aspects of the story which they
‘tted.

3etween them they told us somewhat
itantly about a draft evader who had
den for a long time in this area. The
ount avoided any mention one way or
other of their having actually sheltered
1. Certainly they did not give sign of
ipproving his conduct. Nor did they
sr any assurance of having supported
ir adopted country’s prosecution of the
r.
‘The draft evader came in to see us one
ning. He was worried and almost
red. He had been hunting goats on the
. of the mountain behind our ranch.
ere are some big snowfilds up there, but
1 can’t see them from here.”

We nodded.

‘We've seen them at the mouth of Deso-
on Sound.

2AFT EVADER AND BROTHERS MYSTIFIED

‘Out in the middle of a snowfeld the fel-
said he had found a big patch of snow
ked with fresh blood. He thought at
-e that somebody had killed a goat up
re, but there wasn’t the faintest trace
the foot-track of man or beast except his
n footprints!”

The brothers looked at us sharply, ex-
ting unbelief. I think what puzzled
m most at this moment was that their
ry did not seem to mystify us or seem
redulous.

The draft evader admitted to them that
r of capture by the authorities worried
n constantly. Now he was worrying lest
was a sign that he was becoming men-
ly deranged when he saw fresh blood on
»w which his own eyes proved to him to
without tracks new or old.

The ranchers did not really believe his
ry, but his. distress seemed genuine
ugh, and his imsistence was so great
tt they consented to toil up the mountain
th -him next day to test his story. They
wht have suspected that he planned a
ictical joke on them if he had not been
dy to share the long, rough climb of four
five hours.

“When we got up to the snowfield we
ind his lone track running out into it
d then returning from where he had

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found the bloodstain. The blood was still
there and still looked perfectly fresh.”

My wife and I could visualize the trio
standing there with a creepy feeling play-
ing along the nape of the neck.

“We circled around the whole snowfield.
Not a trace could we find of any living
thing. So we came down.” And probably
came down fast, anxious to get away from
the mysterious evil of the place.

The draft evader was the happiest one
of the three, for their confirmation of what
he had seen convinced him that he was
sane enough.

In all the ensuing years the brothers had
failed to find an explanation of the strange
sight. They made no mention of ever hav-
ing gone up to the snowfields again.

“Can you tell us how such a thing could
be?” they appealed to us.

My wife and I exchanged faint smiles.

“Climbers call it ‘red snow’,” I explained.
“T wonder that you have not heard reports
of it being seen on the Forbidden Plateau
on Vancouver Island. Some of the stories
might lead one to think the Forbidden Pla-
teau had a world monopoly on red snow.

Rep, GREEN, Brown, YELLOW
AND SEPIA SNOW

“Tt’s a bit uncanny if one does not know
what the stuff is. Technically it is Sphae-
rella nivalis, an alga, microscopic in size,
and one scientist declares that no other
living organism appears to be capable of en-
during such extremes of temperature. It
is a free-swimming cell which awakes to
activity only when snow begins to melt.
It has a marvellous capacity for multiplica-
tion and may spread over large areas with
comparatively incredible rapidity.

“Red snow is not unknown on the moun-
tains overlooking Vancouver. In Garibaldi
Park I once saw a snow-covered lake which
was red, white and blue. Large patches of
‘red snow’ dotted the middle of the lake
and a rim of blue water circled the margin.
Another time, wide areas of snow had a
sepia tinge—doubtless another alga known

as ‘brown snow’. ‘Green snow’ is also
known.”
Rarest in my experience is “yellow

snow”, and at first my wife and I were
inclined to attribute it to yellow pollen
which we had seen blowing in clouds out
of trees down in the valleys. But it was
concentrated in patches thousands of feet
above timberline in close association with
“red snow” which was so bright in colour
that it showed even several miles away.
This was in the mountains south of Bella
Coola.

There are over seventy plants, most of
which are alge, which grow in ice and
snow.

The ranchers accepted our explanation
of the mystery of the blood-stained snow,
a phenomenon which causes superstitious
terror in some parts of the world.

Before we put off in our boat next morn-
ing our hosts brought us a bucketful of
plums. Meant as an even more sincere

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