302 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



gradually to descend, forming in its course 

 small flakes, which, uniting with others in fan- 

 - tastic groups, at last reach the earth. Elegant 

 varieties of form are occasionally discoverable 

 in the structure of a snow-flake even in our 

 own temperate regions, but in 'the Arctic re- 

 gions their beauty assumes the most remarkable 

 character. The celebrated Arctic traveller, 

 Scoresby, has described a great number of 

 different crystalline forms, some of which re- 

 semble objects of which the imagination would 

 scarcely dream of their assimilating to in 

 form. Thus, among others, there are beautiful 

 varieties which resemble stars, others wheels, 

 pyramids, very complex mathematical figures, 

 rosettes, leaves, spines, feathers, and others 

 equally curious. These are represented in the 

 adjoining cut. Strange to think, a few degrees 

 less heat evolve these beauties of form and 

 aspect out of a drop of water ! Strange also to 

 remember that a few degrees more heat reduce 

 them all to the transparent mobile fluid out of 

 which they sprang ! It has been supposed that 

 snow favourably influences vegetation, from its 

 containing a solution of atmospheric oxygen ; 

 but in this respect it cannot be much superior 

 to rain ; and it is difficult to imagine that plants 

 must be indebted to snow for a principle 

 which in the adult state all the day long they 



