68 



The amount of earth carried on tlie top of these eolumna 

 is often considerable, but varies on different days and 

 probably depends upon the rapidity with which the crystal- 

 lisation commences. The morning on which there seemed 

 to be least dirt was after several warm days, during which 

 there had been rain and snow, and, consequently, the ground 

 was pretty equally saturated. 



Although probably on more than thirty da3^s in every 

 winter it would be possible to gather some cart loads of 

 these filaments by the side of the favourite mountain walk 

 above Davos, 1 feel convinced that many pass by without 

 ever seeing them in consequence of the covering of dirt, 

 and, as we have said, it is only those who walk early who 

 could, as a rule, see them in great abundance. 



Many other ice and snow structures occurring here would 

 well repay careful study, but competent workers do not 

 take the matter up. On the 11th of this month I was 

 surprised to see the stalks of some herbaceous plants 

 supporting thin sheets of ice the shape of a razor blade and 

 about half an inch broad. These blades were directed 

 against the prevailing wind, and on the umbels of some 

 dead umbelliferae had a very curious appearance. As there 

 had been rain, snow, and mist the day before, the way in 

 which they grew is somewhat doubtful. 



I have in a previous paper* called attention to the fact 

 that the snow entirely recrystallizes during the winter, but 

 towards the end of the winter when the snow is being 

 melted each day it becomes in the night coarsely granulated 

 without any trace of crystalline form. On the 15th of 

 March, in the morning, the granules had much the form of 

 very coarsely granulated zinc, with irregular granules about 

 a quarter of an inch in diameter. 



* " Observations made in St. Moritz." Proc, Manch. Lit. & Phil. Soc, 

 vol. xxii., p. 83. 



