The Mighty Deep 



Quicksilver, known to us usually as a liquid, may 

 be frozen, though not without a greater amount 

 of cold than that which freezes water. Then, 

 again, molten iron that is, iron made soft 

 through great heat is a liquid which when cold 

 hardens into a solid. Iron as we most often see 

 it is simply in its frozen state ; just as much the 

 frozen form of iron as ice is the frozen form 

 of water. 



And the freezing of the two comes about in 

 the same mode. As molten iron cools and 

 hardens it crystallizes. Minute needles, far too 

 minute to be seen, take shape, crossing and re- 

 crossing at various angles, till the whole becomes 

 a solid mass of interlaced iron needles, held in 

 position by attraction. When water changes into 

 ice, the same thing happens. The water-particles 

 shape themselves into tiny needles, and these ice- 

 needles cross and re-cross, till they are knitted 

 into a compact mass, something like the mass of 

 iron needles. 



Nor are needles alone found in ice. Exquisite 

 forms resembling ice-flowers are there also, com- 

 monly invisible, but composed of ice-needles 

 woven into various shapes, which again are 

 woven into the fabric of the solid ice. So a 

 block of ice may perhaps be said to be formed 



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