232 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



breathed upon the ice, and caused transparent flowers 

 of exquisite beauty suddenly to blossom in myriads 

 within it.' 



When we remember that the enormous icebergs of 

 the Arctic and Antarctic seas, the snow-caps which 

 crown the Alps and Andes and Himalayas, and the 

 glaciers which urge their way with resistless force down 

 the mountain valleys, are all made up of these delicate 

 and beautiful snow-flowers, we are struck with the 

 force of the strange contrasts which Nature presents to 

 our contemplation. We may say of the snow-crystals 

 what Tennyson said of the small sea-shell. Each snow- 

 star is 



Frail, but a work divine 



Made so fairily well, 



So exquisitely minute, 



A miracle of design. 



Yet massed together with all the prodigality of 

 Nature's unsparing hand they crown the everlasting 

 hills ; or, falling in avalanche and glacier, overwhelm the 

 stoutest works of man ; or, in vast islands of floating 

 ice, show themselves to be 



Of force to withstand, year upon year, the shock 



Of cataract seas that snap the three-decker's oaken spine. 



(From the Daily Nens, March 11, 1869.) 



