300 APPENDIX. 



or hurricane, and the advantage of prevailing winds to shorten 

 his voyage, decrease his danger, and save that most valuable 

 of all commodities Time. 



Such matters in Arctic navigation, or in snow travel, are to 

 be calculated, or anticipated, with equal precision, by the study 

 of the forms of snow crystals, which, to the observant mind, 

 are merely varieties of rain, the result of causes in action, 

 and from which fine or bad weather may naturally be pro- 

 gnosticated. 



Three classes were made by me, and termed : 



1. Stars and garters from their resemblance to the order 

 of knighthood and perfection of crystal, or such as might re- 

 sult from temporary currents of electricity suddenly forming 

 and condensing vapour, as compared to fine, light, passing 

 showers between bright gleams of sun. It will of course be 

 understood that such light rain, which in other climes would 

 not obscure the sun, would in the state of snow be more 

 opaque. 



2. Rain heavy flocculent snow, cohering, and into which 

 the travellers and sledge sank deeply, warning the intelligent 

 officer that he had better pitch his tent, and reserve the strength 

 of his crew for a period when search would be rational. 



3. Bad-omened fine, spicular snow, the result of No. 1 

 broken by the wind into fine particles : this induced us to 

 expect the sharp rain attended by wind of other climates, but 

 did not hinder travel, it was not so opaque as to impede 

 vision. 



These remarks apply simply to the question of utility in 

 such pursuits ; and, as regards the terms selected by me, were 

 adapted to the minds of those by whom I was surrounded, 

 and who fully understood, in their own way, the full intent 

 of the freemasonry which most leaders maintain with their 

 followers. 



Frequent study induced me to figure what appeared to me 

 to be the primitive form of the perfect crystal, and to reject 

 the more complicate, but yet most beautiful, as interminable 

 additions to the primitive, conformable to the law of congealed 



