434 



THE GUIDE TO XATURE. 



STUDIES IX CURIOUS FORMATION OF ARMS AND CENTERS. 



furnish crystals of surpassing and un- 

 dreamed of beauty far in excess of 

 anything previously found. This hope 

 is reasonable for we may be certain 

 that no one has yet found the one or 

 the few masterpieces that each storm 

 affords. 



As the winters came, new problems 

 unfolded and pressed for solution. 

 Moreover, our studies broadened as 

 time passed and the realms of frost 

 and ice were in turn entered with note- 

 book and camera. These, too, proved 

 to be full of interest and beauty and 

 of problems unsolved. 



We eventually entered into a photo- 

 graphic and comprehensive study of 

 the various forms of water at hand, 

 the snow, frost, ice, dew, clouds, hail, 

 in an endeavor to solve some of the 

 mysteries that enshroud their life his- 

 tory and general relation. We wished 

 most of all to secure photographic 

 likenesses of every type of these sev- 

 eral forms of water and of water crys- 

 tals. 



We have now a collection of fifteen 

 hundred photo-micrographs of snow 

 crystals, no two alike: three hundred 

 and fifty of frost and window ice; more 

 than two hundred of ice crystals and 

 many oi dew, clouds, hail and ice col- 

 umns. 



Our collection of photographs of 



snow crystals is doubtless the largest 

 and most beautiful on earth and it is 

 doubtful if other collections of frost 

 and ice equal or excel ours. Our 

 studies, observations and photographs 

 have helped to reveal several facts and 

 to solve some problems regarding 

 snow, frost and ice architecture and 

 their habits of growth. 



( )ur data tend to confirm many of 

 the observations of others and perhaps 

 also to disprove some. The snow 

 crystal photographs have served to re- 

 veal a degree of beauty and symmetry 

 in the snow crystals hitherto thought 

 impossible and to demonstrate their 

 all but infinite diversity of form and 

 structure. 



Our photographic collections of 

 snow, frost and ice are now compre- 

 hensive and serve to picture with some 

 fullness the many types of each though 

 not, of course, their individual variety 

 of form and structure. 



Among the more important facts 

 and theories that our studies have 

 served to confirm or to render proba- 

 ble are the following: The clouds and 

 the liquid water-dust of which they are 

 composed do not make true crystalline 

 varieties of snow crystals nor form the 

 bulk of the snow fall. Cloud particles 

 coalesce only into amorphous form, to 

 produce granular snow or granular 



