CHAPTER II. 



SNOWED IN. 



WHAT is more romantic, in this our northern clime than a 

 heavy snow-storm ? What wonder that one of our most 

 distinguished American poets could elaborate a charming 

 poem under the title, "Snow-bound." What can be more 

 suggestive of purity, more symbolic of a clean sheet on 

 which to begin a new chapter in life, than the mantle of 

 snow which shrouds the landscape about the beginning of 

 our solar year ? 



" No cloud above, no earth below — 

 A universe of sky and snow." 



Then the snow-flakes ! What wonders of beauty they are I 

 Unity in variety is the law of their forms of delicate beauty. 

 Always star-like, with just six rays or main points, they 

 seem to include every variety of detail on this plan, from 

 the perfectly plain six-rayed star to the most elaborate 

 plumose flower conceivable. Every mineral having its in- 

 variable angle of crystallization — and snow and ice belong 

 to the mineral kingdom — water, in consolidating, shoots 

 forth its angles at precisely 60° — a fact which the merest 

 fragment of a snow-flake will reveal. It is only under cer- 

 tain circumstances that they can be seen to advantage. If 

 they pass through a stratum of air too mild to keep them 

 below the freezing point, they blend, and appear like pellets 

 of white lint; if there is much wind, they are broken into 



