SNIPE-FISH 



SNOW 



535 



small numbers to eastern and southern parts of 

 England, very rare in Scotland and Ireland, but 

 abounding in the extensive marshes of continental 

 Europe, is found also in Asia and in many parts 

 of Africa. Its entire length is about 12J inches, 

 the hill not quite so long in proportion as that of 

 the common snipe. There are sixteen feathers in 

 the tail. The Jack Snipe, or Judcock ( G. gallinula ), 

 the smallest and most beautifully coloured of the 

 group, is like the common snipe in plumage. It is 

 common in Britain, but mostly as a winter visitant, 

 and is found also during summer and winter in 

 most parts of Europe and of the north of Asia 

 and in North Africa. North America has a 

 number of species. The Common American Snipe 

 (S. or G. wilsoni) is about equal in size to the 

 common snipe of Europe, and much resembles it 

 also in plumage, but has sixteen feathers in its 

 tail. The name snipe is extended in popular usage 

 to include the genus Macrorharnphus, in which the 

 outer toes are connected at the base by a membrane. 

 In other characters, as well as in plumage and 

 habits, the similarity to the true snipes is very 

 great. The Red-breasted Snipe, or Brown Snipe 

 (M. griseiit), of North America has been occasion- 

 ally seen in Britain and in Picardy and Normandy. 

 In size it is nearly equal to the common snipe. 



Snipe-fish. See TRUMPET-FISH. 



Slli/ort, LOCH, a large and picturesque inlet 

 of the sea in the north-west of Skye, between 

 Trotternish and Vaternish Points. It narrows 

 from 9 to 3| miles, and is S.J miles long. 



Snoring, an abnormal and noisy mode of res- 

 piration produced by deep inspirations and expira- 

 tions through the nose and open mouth, the noise 

 being caused by the vibrations of the soft palate 

 and uvula. Sometimes the noise arises in the 

 glottis, the vocal chords vibrating loosely. Keep- 

 ing the mouth shut will usually make snoring im- 

 practicable. 



Snorri Sturlason, an Icelandic historian 

 and politician, was the son of a chief of the western 

 fjords, and was born in 1179. The grandson of 

 Ssemund Sigfusson, the compiler of the Elder or 

 Poetic Edda, instructed him in the history, myth- 

 ology, and poetry of the North, as well as in 

 classical literature. By a wealthy marriage Snorri 

 early sprang into a position of influence, and was 

 electee (1215) supreme judge as well as president 

 of the legislative assembly of the island. But his 

 ambition, avarice, and love of intrigue led him to 

 take part not only in private quarrels, but in the 

 intestine troubles of Norway, and thus drew upon 

 him the ill will of the Norwegian king, Hakon, 

 who gent secret instructions to Iceland for his 

 arrest, or, if need be, his assassination. The king's 

 commands were carried out by one of Snorri's 

 bitter enemies, who attacked him in his own house, 

 and murdered him in the year 1241. Snorri was 

 a poet of no mean order ; and besides numerous 

 laudatory poems on contemporary kings and jarls, 

 he composed the Younger or Prose Edda (q.v.) and 

 the Ileimskringla ; this last is a series of sagas or 

 biographies of the Norwegian kings down to 1177, 

 based on trustworthy sources and critically sifted 

 evidence, and is written in a lively and interesting 

 style. It has been translated by S. Laing (1844; 

 new ed. by Rasmus B. Anderson in 4 vols. 1889). 



Snow is the crystalline form into which the 

 excess of vapour in the atmosphere is condensed 

 when the temperature is below freezing. It is not, 

 like hail or sleet, frozen rain, but is formed directly 

 by the invisible aqueous vapour condensing in 

 minute spicules of ice round the dust-particles that 

 float in the air. More than 1000 different forms of 

 crystals have been observed, and many of the chief 

 or typical forms sketched by Scoresby, Glaisher, 



Kaemtz, and others ; but in all of them the filaments 

 of ice are arranged at angles of 60 or 120, and 

 they may be grouped into five classes. ( 1 ) Thin 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 4. 



plates or stars of six rays ( figs. 1 to 5 ), the forms 

 getting more complex the lower the temperature. 

 (2) A solid nucleus or a flat plate, with needle-like 

 crystals projecting in all directions : fig. 7 is a 

 section through one of these. ( 3 ) Fine hexagonal 



Fig. 5. 



or three-sided prisms about |th of an inch long. (4) 

 Prisms having thin plates perpendicular to their 

 length: this form is rare (fig. 6). (5) Pyramids 

 with six faces (fig. 8) : this form also is rare, and 

 is often associated with electrical disturbances. 

 Each shower generally consists of flakes of one 

 class only. Their form is best seen in calm weather ; 

 if there is much wind the crystals are broken and 



Fig. 6. 



Fig. 7. Fig. 8. 



irregular, and during gales tend to agglomerate in 

 spherical masses. The size of flakes varies from 

 alxrat an inch down to T Vth of an inch in diameter, 

 the size being smaller the lower the temperature, 

 but isolated crystals occasionally fall in calm cold 

 weather. The snow-fall of the British Isles is 

 rarely so great as to cause serious inconvenience, 

 except when accompanied by wind and consequent 

 drifting : it then accumulates in railway cuttings 

 and other sheltered places very rapidly, and to an 

 extent limited only by the depth of the sheltered 

 place. In the New England states the average 

 annual fall ranges from 4 to 7 feet. In the Arctic 

 regions and Siberia, though the fall is not greater 

 than this, the snow lies unmelted much longer. 

 To the south of lat. 40 snow is rare, except on 

 hills : but it has been known to fall and he for 

 several days in Algeria and Morocco ; and at 

 Canton, within the torrid zone, it has fallen to 



