<h2><span class="h2line1">MYSTERIES AND BEAUTIES OF THE SNOW</span></h2>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p27.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="492" /> <p class="caption">59. One of the choicest designs of window frost. A perfect specimen of a certain type of delicate seaweed</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p27a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="545" /> <p class="caption">60. A design of frost work from “the land of the pointed firs”</p> </div>
<h2 id="c4"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER IV</span> <br/><span class="h2line2">MYSTERIES AND BEAUTIES OF THE SNOW</span></h2>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?</p>
<p class="t0">Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?”</p>
<p class="lr">—<span class="sc">Job</span> 38:22.</p>
</div>
<p>Most of us have given little time or
very serious thought to the study
of the snow, and the marvellous detail
which goes to fashion the individual snow
crystal. In fact, if we live in a crowded
city, we are inclined to look upon a heavy
snowfall as something of a nuisance, to be
shovelled and carted away as expeditiously
as may be by the army of men employed
by the city for that purpose. There it lies,
soiled and unlovely, impeding pedestrianism
and traffic, and thoroughly undesirable until
it is cleared away.</p>
<p>But once outside in the open country
we are inclined to gaze forth upon the pure
expanse of snow-covered hill and plain,
resplendent and dazzling as it stretches
afar under the pale winter sunshine, with
a more kindly, tolerant mood; for there we
may view the snow in all its unsullied
charm; and it will surely bring fine sleighing,
we concede, and the children are hilarious
and happy over prospective snow sports.</p>
<p>But I wish to give you a brief glimpse
into a realm of snow which is filled with
charm and mystery, and when you have
looked into that realm and studied for
yourself the marvellous phenomena and
detail of snow-crystal formation, you will
doubtless ever after, when gazing forth
upon a snow-covered expanse, or in watching
the fluttering, swirling flakes as they
descend, exclaim: Oh, the wonder and
mystery of it all! How can it be possible
for such exquisitely beautiful jewelled crystals
to fashion themselves in the vast
spaces of the heavens, among the clouds!</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p28.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="521" /> <p class="caption">61. Blizzard type</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p28a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="529" /> <p class="caption">62. Exquisite jewelled type</p> </div>
<p>Snow is, in itself, the water in solution,
crystallised into irregular and regular, more
or less geometrical forms and designs, of
which there are two distinct types; the
crystalline and the granular forms. The
granular formations embody a special type,
and the crystalline formations are usually
transparent or ice-like, and vary in size
greatly, some being about three-quarters
of an inch in greater diameter. They
fall either singly or bunched together,
according to whether the temperature and
humidity is high or low.</p>
<p>The structural formation of snow crystals
is generally found to be of hexagonal
shape, usually six-cornered or pointed,
although rare types have been discovered
and photographed where such was not the
case, as the trigonal crystals shown. Snow
crystals have been classified, as to structural
formation, into two types; the tubular
and columnar. The columnar types are
formed of long, slender, needle-like crystals
or columns, usually tapering at one end,
while the tubular crystals are developed
upon an extremely thin tubular plane.
Frequently we find that two types have
united, thus forming the “compound”
crystal, which is rare, and frequently a
very beautiful, showy snow jewel.</p>
<p>The tubular crystals are of more common
occurrence and exhibit greater beauty and
diversity of outline than the plain columnar
types.</p>
<p>The internal formation and design of
the snow crystal is of great importance and
interest, and the delicately etched markings
which occur upon their surfaces, and are so
well brought out in the photo-micrographic
illustrations, are due to certain minute air
inclusions or small air tubes. When the
light falls upon the crystal, these air tubes
appear as dark tracings or lines and shadings
and go to form and carry out the design of
each individual crystal.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p29.jpg" alt="" width-obs="536" height-obs="600" /> <p class="caption">63. Solid, big storm type</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p29a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="503" height-obs="600" /> <p class="caption">64. A very symmetrical crystal</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p29b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="505" height-obs="600" /> <p class="caption">65. High altitude crystal</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p29d.jpg" alt="" width-obs="350" height-obs="600" /> <p class="caption">66. Freak crystal formed by broken sections uniting</p> </div>
<p>During great snowstorms the winds
within such storms blowing spirally inward
toward the storm centre near the earth,
and at the same time upward and outward,
above, exert the vast powers of bringing
together the material, the water vapours,
which in conjunction with the icy breath
of the raging blizzard, perfects the formation
of the snow crystal.</p>
<p>Far above the clouds, in the vast silences
of space, in thinnest air, supported solely
by up-rushing winds, the little snow crystals
form and multiply, embellished and
enlarged by their continual warring contact
with the elements, until at last they descend
earthward.</p>
<p>Many of these beautiful crystals are
doubtless great travellers, for they are
frequently, when first generated in space,
exceedingly light in formation, so much
so that not until they have been buffeted
about repeatedly by the Storm King, do
they gain sufficiently in structure and
in weight to descend. They are gradually
built up and become heavier by
the varying conditions of air pressure,
degrees of humidity, aided also by electric
currents.</p>
<p>Often the delicate crystals are handled
so very roughly while passing from cloud
to cloud strata, and violent choppy winds,
that there are frequent collisions and many
of the crystals reach us in a broken,
imperfect state. Perfect crystals are by
no means common, and it requires infinite
patience and skill to capture and photograph
them in perfection. During a great
blizzard or snow-storm, lasting for days,
which one might reasonably hope would be
quite prolific of many perfect specimens,
perhaps only one or two really perfect or
noteworthy crystals may be obtained.</p>
<p>It is only within the past few years
that scientists have been enabled to secure
crystallographs with any degree of success,
so that all early observers of snow-crystal
formation were compelled to rely upon
the magnifying glass for all information
regarding their delicate formation, and crude
drawings were made from such observation
and served to illustrate articles upon the
subject, as shown in the early writings of
Tyndall and others.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p30.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="479" /> <p class="caption">68. Air inclusions unusually clear</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p30a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="546" /> <p class="caption">69. Low altitude type</p> </div>
<p>It is to Mr. Wilson A. Bentley who is
recognised as the pioneer in crystal photography,
that I am indebted for the wonderfully
beautiful illustrations shown, and
which have been selected with much care,
in order to give as clearly as possible some
idea of the many distinct types and the
formation of crystals produced during given
types of storms or blizzards. Mr. Bentley
has during his many years of valuable
work for the Government along these
lines, secured thirteen hundred distinct
snow crystals. Strangely enough, in all
that time, he has never run across duplicates.
Nature, it seems, is ever versatile
and the rarity of her patterns is practically
inexhaustible.</p>
<p>Unlike the mineral crystals, or those
found in the mineral kingdom, which form
beneath the surface of the earth, and are
dependent largely upon their surroundings
and environments for their crystalline formation,
the snow crystal is most ethereal;
born in the vast spaces of the heavens,
fashioned by the changing clouds and
vapours, its lullaby the hoarse crooning of
the mighty blizzard, the little snowflake
is tossed to and fro, now borne to earth
for a brief time, only to be caught upward
and tempest-tossed into space again.
Perhaps this process occurs many times,
for the snowflake is a mere plaything of
the storm, until at last the capricious winds
permit the snowflake to descend. Timidly
and gently it is at last allowed to fall, seeking
a final resting place upon the broad
bosom of Mother Earth.</p>
<p>It is thus that the snow crystal grows
and matures, owing its crystalline formation
entirely to the constant tossing and
warring with the mighty forces of the
storm, and the buffeting which it encounters
upon its long journey earthwards.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p31b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="625" /> <p class="caption">70. Local storm crystal</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p31c.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="625" /> <p class="caption">71. Freak trigonal crystal</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p31d.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="605" /> <p class="caption">72. Elaborately etched</p> </div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“When e’er a snowflake leaves the sky</p>
<p class="t0">It turns and turns, to say good-bye.</p>
<p class="t0">Good-bye, dear clouds, so cool and gray,</p>
<p class="t0">Then turns and hastens on its way.</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“But when a snowflake finds a tree</p>
<p class="t0">Good-day, it says, good-day to thee.</p>
<p class="t0">Thou art so bare and lonely, dear,</p>
<p class="t0">I’ll rest and find a playmate here.</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“But when a snowflake brave and meek</p>
<p class="t0">Lights on a little maiden’s cheek,</p>
<p class="t0">It starts—how warm and mild the day,</p>
<p class="t0">’Tis summer; and it melts away.”</p>
</div>
<p>It is of course utterly impossible to bring
before you in the photo-micrographs of the
snow crystals all their many charms, their
exquisite hues and rainbow shadings, as
each crystal radiates with prismatic hues
which are due greatly to air inclusions
and resembles closely at times, clusters of
magnificent jewels. We get this effect in
mass, if we gaze forth upon a wide expanse
of snow illuminated by pale moonlight, or
flooded by strong sunshine. The scintillation
is almost too dazzling at times for
the eyes, and we are duly impressed by
the magnitude of snow-crystal formation.
Numberless they are, and like the sands
of the seashore. We find that in making
a collection of snow crystals by photo-micrograph,
during a period covering
twenty years of study, in which thirteen
hundred perfect specimens were found,
that the entire number discovered, when
massed, would form only about one cubic
inch of snow.</p>
<p>How many millions of these exquisitely
constructed jewels do we heedlessly crush
and shatter unconsciously during a brief
walk in the snow and how crude and
imperfect seem the productions of human
minds and hands when compared to those
formed by the blind forces of nature.</p>
<p>The exquisite and varied types of snow
crystals herein shown, were photographed
in northern Vermont; a locality where the
snow-storms are frequently long and severe
and where the country by-roads are blocked
and impassable for days, while huge drifts
pile high above the fences, and often cover
the windows.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p32.jpg" alt="" width-obs="409" height-obs="601" /> <p class="caption">73. The cuff button crystals. From a great storm</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p32c.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="656" /> <p class="caption">74. Low cloud crystal</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p32d.jpg" alt="" width-obs="419" height-obs="600" /> <p class="caption">75. A beautifully marked high altitude crystal</p> </div>
<p>Whittier brings before us the whole
picture so charmingly in his beautiful
“Snow-Bound”:</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“Zigzag, wavering to and fro,</p>
<p class="t0">Crossed and re-crossed the winged snow;</p>
<p class="t0">And ere the early bed-time came</p>
<p class="t0">The white drift piled the window pane.”</p>
</div>
<p>In these severe winter snow-storms
which our New England poets illustrate
so aptly, we become familiar with the
snow in all its unsullied purity, and if we
are New England born, we never forget
the white, frozen charms of those rigid
winters, no matter where we stray, or how
torrid the sunshine of our abiding place
in later years.</p>
<p>Many there are among us who are
familiar with and love that winter idyl, the
wintry landscape—a blended symphony
of colouring; warm russet browns, gray,
and rich velvety greens. Against the dense
greens of the Hemlock and Spruce, the
sturdy mottled Sycamore branches, with
their little pendent russet balls clinging
tenaciously to their topmost twigs, stand
forth in bold relief, while graceful white
birches, slender and ghost-like, mingle and
blend with the sombre gray trunks of
Chestnut and Birch, which toss and sway
their denuded branches high in the frosty
air.</p>
<p>A cold gray sky—then stealing down
appear the first silent fluttering snowflakes,
floating gently earthward. A brooding
silence settles over all, unbroken save perhaps
by a straggling flight of crows winging
their way heavily to safe shelter
among the distant forest of dark pines.
Timidly at first descend the first advance
heralds of the great storm, the tiny snowflakes;
then suddenly ever faster and faster
they assemble, until the dreary, leaden
skies and the landscape picture is confused
and merged together in a gray
curtain; shut out by the wildly eddying,
swirling snow.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p33.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="484" /> <p class="caption">76. Crystal coated with granular snow</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p33a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="500" /> <p class="caption">77. Having flower-like petals</p> </div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,</p>
<p class="t0">Arrives the snow, and driving o’er the fields</p>
<p class="t0">Seems nowhere to alight, the whitened air</p>
<p class="t0">Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heavens</p>
<p class="t0">And veils the farmhouse at the garden’s end.”</p>
</div>
<p>Every living thing instinctively seeks
safe sanctuary against the advancing fury
of the storm; and desolation broods o’er
all the land. The hoarse winds rise and
rage and croon their wailing symphonies
about the picturesque old gray-gabled farmhouses,
and the inmates settle themselves
contentedly within doors where all is
made safe and snug. And thus the mighty
blizzard rages for days. But at last the
grateful sunshine deigns to burst forth
once again, and like magic the scene of
desolation has changed:</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“Come, see the North Wind’s masonry</p>
<p class="t0">Out of an unseen quarry evermore</p>
<p class="t0">Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer</p>
<p class="t0">Curves the white bastions with projected roof</p>
<p class="t0">Round every windward stake, or tree or door.</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“Leaves when the sun appears, astonished Art</p>
<p class="t0">To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,</p>
<p class="t0">Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,</p>
<p class="t0">The frolic Architecture of the snow.”</p>
</div>
<p>For the trees which tossed their naked
gnarled branches in the pitiless wind before
the storm have been rejuvenated and clothed
anew in soft white velvet draperies, and the
old gray fence rails gleam and scintillate,
cushioned with snow. It would almost
seem as though nature had endeavoured
to carry out some special decorative
scheme when she draped the evergreens,
for see how beautiful are the Southern
Pines with their brush-like tufts of
needles, each one resembling a snowy
pompon of feathers. The graceful, drooping
Hackmatack tree looks as though the
children had decorated it with strings of
popcorn, the tiny cones at intervals each
touched with a wisp of white snow carrying
out the effect. While the Balsams
wave their serrated branches, each tiny
needle outlined in white, and the stately
Hemlocks bend low their glossy green
boughs, flattened and draped heavily with
snow. In the hedges the thick underbrush
appears for all the world like a field
of ripening cotton, each group of twigs
supporting a whorl of cotton-like snow. No
true New Englander repines or deplores
the desolation of such a scene; to him it
is not a gloomy spectacle, but rather
festive.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p34.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="532" /> <p class="caption">78. Very intricate design</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p34a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="503" /> <p class="caption">79. Showing a perfect star. Low altitude type</p> </div>
<p>Should you wander alone far afield,
perhaps across some hilly pasture where
above the soft snow hummocks last year’s
drying seed-pods and grasses gleam frost-touched
and sparkling in the sunshine,
into the edge of the “spruce bush,” if you
are a lover of nature in all her moods, aside
from the glittering beauties which meet
the eye upon every hand, you will be
impressed by a wonderful calmness, a
brooding silence, which came with the
advent of the snow. This silence is so
impressive that even the velvety pad of
some little furry creature in the underbrush
is startling, and the tapping of the
brave little woodpecker up aloft sounds
stridently keen and obtrusive. It is as
though the storm in passing had left as
a benediction, this great peace which
broods over all.</p>
<p>In tropical countries snow is never
seen, for it does not reach the earth, excepting
that which falls upon lofty mountain
tops. On the summits of very high mountains
the snow occurs intermittently
whether in frigid or tropical zones. Snow
is a wonderfully important factor in the
laws which govern irrigation, for as it
melts upon the tops of mountains it adds
greatly to the watershed or drainage,
flowing into all streams and carrying fertility
to all regions.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p35.jpg" alt="" width-obs="497" height-obs="646" /> <p class="caption">80. Frigid altitude crystal</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p35a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="648" /> <p class="caption">81. High and low altitude combined</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p35c.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="640" /> <p class="caption">82. Having beautifully etched centre</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p35d.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="643" /> <p class="caption">83. A diamond pendant</p> </div>
<p>Although certain types of snow crystals
may be detected with the naked eye,
most of them are so tiny that their structural
form cannot be determined without the
aid of a microscope. If you chance to be
out of doors during a snowfall, and happen
to wear a dark coat of wool material,
observe closely the flakes which chance to
alight upon your sleeve and perhaps you
may be able to recognise a true crystal.</p>
<p>When, as we sometimes remark, “Mother
Goose is shaking out her feather bed,”
and the white flakes come drifting down
in large loose feathery flakes, then we
may more readily discover a crystal without
the aid of a glass. It is then that we
find the lace-like, open, branchy and star-like
shapes. These usually form during
a local storm, or from a storm preceded by
a warm wave. But the hard pellet-like
crystals which sting our window-panes in
falling, are from a very high altitude, and
have been great travellers.</p>
<p>The study of the snow and its many
mysterious phases is full of surprise and
charm; and its various demonstrations
fascinating and almost unexplainable.
Among the many strange manifestations
encountered in the kingdom of snow,
perhaps there is nothing more mysterious
than the so-called “snow rollers.” They
are rather a recent discovery among snow
students, and not frequently encountered.
Two good examples of these curious rollers
are given in photograph illustrations. The
photographer came upon them quite unexpectedly
and thought at first that the
children had been amusing themselves
by rolling huge snowballs. But upon
investigation he discovered that these mysterious
bundles of snow were quite hollow,
like a large muff, and scattered at intervals
over a large snow-covered field. These
mysterious snow rollers form only after
a light fluffy snowfall, followed by a rise in
the temperature, from a degree or so
above zero up to 36° or 38° above, accompanied
by a peculiar stray gusty wind.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p36.jpg" alt="" width-obs="447" height-obs="500" /> <p class="caption">84. Clean cut prism-like crystal from high altitude</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p36a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="451" height-obs="500" /> <p class="caption">85. Suggesting a Masonic emblem. Trigonal crystal</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p36c.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="448" /> <p class="caption">86. The Egyptian crystal, because of its characteristic tracings</p> </div>
<p>The rollers form most frequently in the
foothill regions, wherein these gusty winds
pour over and around the hilltops, and
down across the valleys. After the temperature
has reached 36° to 38° above and
the snow upon the surface of the ground
has been slightly dampened and rendered
sticky, the capricious wind gusts scoop up
here and there small particles of the moist
snow, and overturn them upon that in
front, forming a ridge or hollow arch,
which is the commencement of the snow
roller. Then the wind gets back of it,
and proceeds to roll it forward, until, as
it gradually rolls along it accumulates
more snow, and increases in size, until it
becomes too heavy a plaything for the sport
of the winds, and then it stops.</p>
<p>These snow rollers grow in size both in
diameter and in length, as they roll along,
and attain various sizes from a few inches
in diameter up to two feet in diameter.
Some of the rolls are overturned by the
boisterous winds in such a manner as to
form a hollow snow arch, and hence some
of the rolls are hollow even when matured.
Hundreds of these rather mysterious snow
formations occur to the acre of land, and
they form both on a dead level and upon
inclines.</p>
<p>That snow crystal study is extremely
fascinating is well shown, for Mr. Bentley
declares that although he works out of
doors for hours at a time, when often his
hands are well-nigh frost-bitten by the
intense cold, in below zero weather, yet
he is himself almost unconscious of discomfort
or real suffering from the cold,
so keenly interested and intent is he at the
time, in securing some new and wonderful
type of crystal to add to his already large
collection of snow jewels.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p37c.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="494" /> <p class="caption">87. Unusually symmetrical and clearly defined</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p37d.jpg" alt="" width-obs="444" height-obs="500" /> <p class="caption">88. Singular detail; dotted centre design</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p37e.jpg" alt="" width-obs="450" height-obs="500" /> <p class="caption">89. Trigonal crystal, very cold storm type</p> </div>
<p>To make a collection of the snow crystals
it is necessary, first of all, to make a
receiving board. This is just a flat board
covered with black velvet or wool material.
The operator then places the board in a
favourable position for catching the flakes
as they descend, and then closely watches
the receiving board as flake after flake
alights upon the black surface. His eye
will become sufficiently trained by experience
at last to detect a fairly perfect
specimen. If such a crystal alights—and
sometimes it is weary waiting, for in a
storm lasting an entire day, frequently but
two or three perfect crystals deign to alight
upon the receiving board—but when the
perfect crystal arrives, then with infinite
skill, and just the right touch, which must
be acquired by practice, the little crystal
is gently lifted upon a tiny, sharp-pointed
stick, transferred to the slide and photographed
as quickly as possible, before
it has had an opportunity to dissolve,
and become again a mere drop of uninteresting
moisture. The camera used is
photo-micrographic, or a camera with a
microscopic attachment.</p>
<p>Regarding the formation of the snow
into crystalline forms, we are told that the
molecules and atoms of all substances
when allowed freedom of movement, form
themselves into many definite shapes and
designs called crystals. Minerals, gold,
silver, iron, sulphur, when melted and
permitted to cool, gradually show this
crystallising power. And by dissolving saltpetre
in water and allowing the solution to
slowly evaporate, large crystals will form,
more or less symmetrical, as the salt is
converted into vapour. Alum readily crystallises
in the same way. The diamond is
crystallised carbon, and all precious stones
are examples of mineral crystals. It would
be quite an interesting and novel experiment
to photograph some of these crystals
formed of minerals such as saltpetre, alum
and others, and to compare them with
the structural formation of snow crystals.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p38.jpg" alt="" width-obs="512" height-obs="495" /> <p class="caption">90. Note the young germ crystals invading this crystal</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p38a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="493" height-obs="500" /> <p class="caption">91. Granular pellet crystals from a warm cloud</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p38b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="633" /> <p class="caption">92. Columnar six-sided type. Singular effect of miniature photographs enclosed</p> </div>
<p>Water itself as a liquid is to all appearances
formless; when sufficiently cooled,
however, the molecules are brought within
play of the crystallising force, and thus
arrange themselves in more or less attractive
crystals. A most interesting point,
well worthy of consideration, is that it is
extremely improbable that anyone has
as yet found, perhaps never will find, the
one preëminently beautiful and symmetrical
snow crystal which nature has probably
fashioned in her most artistic mood—her
masterpiece. The study of this unique
branch of nature work is as yet in its
infancy. It possesses all the charm of
novelty, and many who take it up will
find in it a source of much pleasure as well
as instruction.</p>
<p>It would seem that there is really no
limit to the number of distinct forms and
types among the snow crystals. It will
be noted that many of the designs are most
rare and fanciful, and really worthy of
developing and reproducing in many ways.
The open, lace-like types might well be
copied by a jeweller or worker in precious
stones, for nothing could be more exquisite
in a pendant or brooch than one of these snow-crystal
designs carried out in diamonds.
Others suggest rare patterns for lace work
and embroideries, while others are wonderfully
effective pieces of mosaic work, or
suggestive studies for stained window-glass.
Many of the patterns might well serve for
wall-paper or print material designs. And
as a drawing lesson, the simpler forms
might be copied and with their history and
detail, afford a pleasant and profitable
study.</p>
<p>Ideas along these lines it seems to me
are limitless and well worth cultivating.</p>
<p>Again, to quote Whittier, how charmingly
has he portrayed, in the following
lines, the strangely beautiful and mysterious
formation of the ethereal snow
crystal:</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p39.jpg" alt="" width-obs="482" height-obs="800" /> <p class="caption">93. Sleet, sharp and stinging</p> </div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“So all night long the storm roared on;</p>
<p class="t0">The morning broke without the sun;</p>
<p class="t0">In tiny spherule traced with lines</p>
<p class="t0">Of Nature’s geometric signs,</p>
<p class="t0">In starry flake, and pellicle,</p>
<p class="t0">All day the hoary meteors fell.”</p>
</div>
<p>That all may know and understand the
life history and formation of the crystals
shown in the photographs, I will give a
brief description of each which you will
doubtless find both interesting and
instructive. It will be seen that each crystal
possesses some individual characteristic
differing entirely from its predecessor, and
each, in its way, fascinating and beautiful.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic61">No. 61</SPAN>. A very showy crystal, of local-storm
type, also a blizzard crystal formed
in low, warm altitude.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic62">No. 62</SPAN>. This exquisite crystal might well
suggest a jewelled brooch or pendant of
rare workmanship. It began its formation
in a very high altitude, where the solid,
hexagonal centre was formed, started to
descend in plain hexagonal form, but was
caught upwards by the rushing clouds,
tossed about awhile, and then allowed to
pass into a lower, warmer altitude where
its elaborated branches were added.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic63">No. 63</SPAN>. A high, frigid-altitude crystal,
notable for its delicately traced centre
design, and the six curious, apparently
raised formations in the plainer spaces.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic64">No. 64</SPAN>. Remarkable for its six beautiful
prism-like rays, and central wheel-like
structure.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic65">No. 65</SPAN>. An exquisitely designed centre,
with air inclusions strongly marked.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic66">No. 66</SPAN>. This crystal has been formed of
two sections, and must have encountered
another broken crystal in its travels,
with which it united, and from this its
crystalline growth formed.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic68">No. 68</SPAN>. An oddity. The air inclusions are
very strongly marked and bring into sharp
relief its rare central design.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic69">No. 69</SPAN>. A local-storm type. These
crystals are always loose and feathery in
construction.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p40.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="380" /> <p class="caption">94. Old snow, re-crystallized</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p40a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="551" /> <p class="caption">95. Freak crystal. Developed the sides only which fell downwards</p> </div>
<p><SPAN href="#pic70">No. 70</SPAN> was started in a very high, cold
altitude, and completed in warmer clouds.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic71">No. 71</SPAN>. A rare trigonal form, a sort of
“freak” crystal.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic72">No. 72</SPAN> has delicate tracings.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic73">No. 73</SPAN>. A very remarkable group of snow
crystals, which always attract wonder and
incredulity, as they appear upon close
inspection to represent quite a pretty set of
collar buttons or studs. These snow crystals
are the product of a very great storm, and
they travelled a long distance before reaching
the earth. They were generated in a very
high, frigid altitude. When these singular
snow crystals descended they fell in parachute
fashion, the larger section downward.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic74">No. 74</SPAN>. Low-altitude type.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic75">No. 75</SPAN>. This crystal is remarkable for the
peculiar delicately etched tracings of its
centre, and the rather curious designs in
each scallop. A rarity.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic76">No. 76</SPAN>. A crystal powdered with frost-work;
has granular edges.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic77">No. 77</SPAN>. A flower type, having few air
inclusions, as it grew rapidly and continuously.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic78">No. 78</SPAN>. A very beautiful jewelled design
of the diamond pendant type. A local
storm crystal.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic79">No. 79</SPAN>. Also a local-storm crystal, generated
in warm, low clouds.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic80">No. 80</SPAN>. A perfect hexagonal type having
rarely beautiful air inclusions.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic81">No. 81</SPAN>. A lace-like crystal.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic82">No. 82</SPAN>. Note the very beautiful centre
elaboration of this crystal, and the plain,
apparently unfinished branches.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic83">No. 83</SPAN>. An extremely showy crystal;
also a blizzard type.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic84">No. 84</SPAN>. A singularly beautiful type,
having unique centre elaborations, and
perfect, glass-like prismatic branches.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic85">No. 85</SPAN>. Here we have what appears at
first glance to be some secret emblem or
Masonic order sent from cloud-land. Of
rare trigonal, solid form.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p41.jpg" alt="" width-obs="597" height-obs="428" /> <p class="caption">96. Snow rollers. Very rare</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p41a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="597" height-obs="432" /> <p class="caption">97. Scattered like huge muffs over large tracts of land they lie</p> </div>
<p><SPAN href="#pic86">No. 86</SPAN>. An Egyptian mystery. Study
the markings of this strange crystal closely;
its delicately etched centre formation, and
the strange characters which form its border.
May it not well be some secret cypher message
from the skies? Who shall say?
This crystal is an extremely cold weather
type, as all solidly formed crystals are.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic87">No. 87</SPAN>. The peculiarity of this crystal is
the apparent correction made in its nuclear
construction.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic88">No. 88</SPAN>. A very delicate and beautiful
type. Note the strange grouping of symmetrically
arranged dots in its centre
formation.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic89">No. 89</SPAN>. Trigonal. A general-storm type.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic90">No. 90</SPAN>. Upon the face of this crystal
appear young germ crystals which have
attached themselves to the crystal proper.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic91">No. 91</SPAN>. Round, granular snow pellets,
from cumulus clouds.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic92">No. 92</SPAN>. Columnar snow crystals; a peculiarity
noticeable in these ice-like prisms
is that each one contains apparently, at
first glance, a picture held in its depths.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic93">No. 93</SPAN>. This is another distinct type of
snow, the needle, or spicular form—sleety,
which stings and cuts the face when driven
by high winds.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic94">No. 94</SPAN>. A piece of old snow re-crystallised.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic95">No. 95</SPAN>. This crystal is remarkable in that
it fell and grew heavier side downward,
leaving its upper branches undeveloped.</p>
<p>Nos. <SPAN href="#pic96">96</SPAN> and <SPAN href="#pic97">97</SPAN> show the mysterious
“snow rollers” scattered over the surface
of a field, with a glimpse of the wintery
landscape as a background.</p>
<p>Nos. <SPAN href="#pic98">98</SPAN>, <SPAN href="#pic99">99</SPAN>, and <SPAN href="#pic100">100</SPAN> are “freak” crystals,
100 showing singularly shaped tablets attached.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic101">No. 101</SPAN>. A twin crystal.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic102">No. 102</SPAN>. This crystal grew very rapidly
and continuously; a warm cloud type.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic103">No. 103</SPAN>. Two types combined.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic104">No. 104</SPAN>. A rare design, with fluted
prisms, central etchings notable.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p42.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="768" /> <p class="caption">98. A freak crystal</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p42a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="748" /> <p class="caption">99. Two broken crystals united</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p42c.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="642" /> <p class="caption">100. A society emblem. High altitude</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p42d.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="641" /> <p class="caption">101. Twin crystal</p> </div>
<p><SPAN href="#pic105">No. 105</SPAN>. A remarkably fine specimen.
A cold-weather type of crystal. Also has
marked perfection in air inclusions.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic106">No. 106</SPAN>. This crystal is another great
traveller, a high-altitude type. Such crystals
usually possess marked precision and
finish in detail as they are long in forming.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic107">No. 107</SPAN>. A star crystal.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic108">No. 108</SPAN>. Notable for its very dark centre,
and scroll-like detail.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic109">No. 109</SPAN>. Plain, high altitude type.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic110">No. 110</SPAN>. Local storm type.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic111">No. 111</SPAN>. A prismatic beauty.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic112">No. 112</SPAN>. A very frigid-altitude type.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic113">No. 113</SPAN>. Contrasting, low-altitude type.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic114">No. 114</SPAN>. This crystal possesses a remarkably
intricate and noteworthy centre.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic115">No. 115</SPAN>. Also has elaborate centre design.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic116">No. 116</SPAN>. A remarkably beautiful, jewelled
effect; intricate centre. This crystal is
another mystery. It is of a high-altitude
type, and is called “the arrow crystal”
because of the six clearly defined arrows
upon its surface. A crystal worthy of
study.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic117">No. 117</SPAN>. Remarkable feathery type.
Low-altitude crystal.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic118">No. 118</SPAN>. Notable for very dark centre, and
invasion of germ crystals upon its surface.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic119">No. 119</SPAN> shows a high-altitude type where
the centre hexagonal portion is well perfected,
but the branch-like rays show
imperfections and incompleteness of structural
formation.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic120">No. 120</SPAN> is one of the most showy crystals
in the collection. Of trigonal formation
with fantastic prism-like branches; a high-altitude
type.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic121">No. 121</SPAN> is a strange crystal, something
of a “freak,” while <SPAN href="#pic122">No. 122</SPAN> is a singularly
beautiful type, notable for its very dark
centre, and the unique and rather mysterious
tracings which go to form its border.
This crystal must have remained in a very
high altitude for some time before descending
as it shows finely finished detail.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p43.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="540" /> <p class="caption">102. A feathery type. Local storm</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p43a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="511" /> <p class="caption">103. Leaf-like terminations</p> </div>
<p><SPAN href="#pic123">No. 123</SPAN> is a beautiful flower type. Usually
the branches merge together but in this
instance they remained open like flower
petals.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic124">No. 124</SPAN>. A high-altitude crystal covered
with a deposit of granular snow.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic125">No. 125</SPAN>. Very high-altitude type, having
curious inner tracings.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic126">No. 126</SPAN>. A beautiful symmetrical star
design, with leaf-like terminating branches.
A local-storm type.</p>
<p><SPAN href="#pic127">No. 127</SPAN>. A great traveller from a cold
high altitude.</p>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p44.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="500" /> <p class="caption">104. Delicately etched centre</p> </div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/p44a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="489" /> <p class="caption">105. High altitude crystal. Rare and singularly perfect in construction</p> </div>
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