432 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



And was there ever disappointment 

 so keen as mine when I found that the 



WILSON A. BENTLEY. 



frost would melt far too quickly for 

 photographic work, even in a tempera- 



ture far helow zero. It became clear 

 that new and untried methods must be 

 employed in this delicate work. 1 

 tried ordinary daylight for illumina- 

 tion but failure again resulted as too 

 much light (too large a stop) was used 

 to light the object, thus drowning out 

 detail and contrasts. Our efforts 

 seemed to spell failure. Finally, not- 

 ing how much sharper and plainer 

 delicate transparent crystals of alum, 

 etc., appeared when but dimly lighted 

 (using a small stop), we made a very 

 small stop, one-sixteenth of an inch, 

 for our microscope sub stage and ap- 

 plied this principle to our work. 



The first trial demonstrated the suc- 

 cess of the method, with ordinary day- 

 light from snow or sky for illumina- 

 tion. There could hardly be pleasure 

 more keen than was ours when success 

 was at last assured. Now w r e could 

 photograph with ease even the most 

 complex and beautiful specimens of 

 snow that the clouds might shower 

 down to us, those that no artist, how- 

 ever skillful, could hope to draw. Now 

 we felt that others would ere long- 

 share with us the delights of our beau- 

 tiful studv. 



CURIOUS, MAT-LIKE FORMS OF SNOW CRYSTALS. 



