SNOW-FLAKES 11 



many things which the observant and well-read Gilbert 

 White never came to know. 



Would that we had a constant succession of natural- 

 ists of White's sort ! Natural History is being choked 

 by unassimilated facts, mechanically compiled by men 

 who have apparently ceased to think about Nature 

 Hence a profuse and growing literature of the most 

 melancholy description, dry, marrowless, useless. We 

 record and record till our catalogues grow too volu- 

 minous for storage, and too stodgy for the toughest 

 appetite. Why do we go on printing this stuff? Be- 

 cause a considerable section of the public believes in 

 Natural History, and is willing to pay for much that 

 it never reads. W r hen the purchaser is not a reader, 

 the quality of the writing may sink to any level 

 whatever. 



SNOW-FLAKES. 



Jan. 6. Snow is falling thick this morning. I 

 have been out of doors to look at the snow-flakes. 

 All that is required is a plate to catch the snow, and 

 a pocket-lens. The plate must not be above the 

 freezing-point. A sheet of coloured paper often does 

 as well or even better. This morning the snow- 

 crystals were not first-rate. They were large and ir- 

 regular, several cohering together and blurring one 

 another's outlines. This is usually the case when the 

 air is close to freezing-point and somewhat moist. If 

 my first inspection had been quite satisfactory, I should 

 have brought out a microscope, and allowing time for 

 cooling, should have examined the crystals more 

 carefully, as I have done many times before. 



