9G BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER, 



uppermost was the longest, the next shorter, and 

 so on ; and I pointed out that circumstance to 

 my uncle. 



" That," said he, " is easily accounted for; 

 whatever quantity of moisture there was in the 

 ground at first, there must have been less and 

 less every succeeding night, and the length of the 

 columns therefore diminished each night in the 

 same proportion." 



In a short walk that \ve afterwards took with 

 my uncle, he observed, as we passed the garden 

 of a small cottage on the border of the forest, 

 that it was late to see carrots still in the ground; 

 and Frederick remarked that the earth looked 

 cracked and swelled round them. My uncle 

 asked leave of the cottager to go into the garden, 

 and there we found that several carrots were 

 actually pushed upwards by the icy columns, the 

 tops of which adhered to the crown of the plant, 

 from which the leaves spring. As the additional 

 joints of the columns had formed, they had acted 

 with so much force, as, in some cases, to break 

 the small fibres by which the root is held in the 

 ground ; and in others even the end of the tap 

 root of the carrot was snapped asunder. 



I took an opportunity of asking my uncle if 

 there are any spicula in an icicle, which looks so 

 transparent and smooth. 



He explained to me, that an icicle assumes 

 its smooth conical form from the gradual con- 



