128 On a singular instance of Crystallization. 
The winter thus far, up to the 15th of February, has been one of 
unexampled severity since the first settlement of the Ohio company, 
at Marietta, in the year 1788. The thermometer has been for a 
number of mornings at zero, and once or twice five degrees below, 
since the 22d of December last. The great snow storm, which 
seems to have visited the whole length of the United States, com- 
menced here on Friday the 14th January, 1831, at 4 o’clock, P. M. 
_ and continued until Saturday, 11 0’clock, A. M. There fell fifteen 
inches in depth of snow, very level and even over the surface of the 
earth. A light breeze from the north attended the fall. The weath- 
- er continued cloudy until Tuesday, with occasional light showers of 
snow. 
February 15th, 1831. 
Arr. XIV.—On a singular instance of Crystallization; by Av- 
custus A. Hayes. 
Ar the extensive drug ware-house of Messrs. Henshaw & Co. of 
Boston, after a few weeks of unusually cold weather, a quantity of 
oil of sassafras was decanted from a canister which had contained @ 
mixture of the oil and water; there remained at the bottom a solid 
mass, which was liquefied by heat, thrown into an open tub, and left 
uncovered, exposed to the temperature of about 40° Fah. twelve oF 
fourteen hours. At this time it was observed that the whole interior 
of the tub, below the surface of the fluid, was beautifully studded 
with large transparent crystals, closely resembling those deposited 
from a saturated saline solution. The fluid was decanted and re- 
placed by cold water from a well; covered with this, the crystals 
remained unaltered, an interesting object of curiosity to numerous 
observers, for several days. 
Through the kindness of Mr. Henshaw, I was permitted to exam- 
ine the forms of the crystals, and select from them a number, for the 
purpose of learning their composition, and observing the circumstal 
ces attending their production. The form was that of a hexagonal 
prism, terminated by low six-sided pyramids, variously modified ; 
two lateral faces of the prism were sometimes so extended, that * — 
line only marked the others; the faces of the pyramids were also 
unequal, and in a few instances, one plane obliterated all waces of 
