28 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



adhere to each other, making those shapeless masses which 

 we call large flakes, and which we justly consider a sign 

 that the snow will end in rain, as indicating a temperature 

 high enough to melt the falling snow. If the air near the 

 earth is warmer than that above, the crystals melt as soon 

 as they are deposited : if there is any wind, the crystals are 

 blown about, and so beaten against each other as to be 

 broken into minute fragments, forming small snow, which 

 never falls except during wind. They must be received on 

 a dark substance to display them properly, and even at the 

 best, their minuteness, rarely exceeding an eighth of an inch 

 in diameter, is sufficient to cause them to be overlooked by 

 any eye, but one accustomed to pry into the minutiae of 

 creation. 



C. How brilliant is their polish, even when highly 

 magnified ; and how perfect and well-defined their outline ! 



F. Oh, yes ! the works of God alone will bear a close 

 examination. If we take the most delicate production of hu- 

 man workmanship, and subject its parts to the power of a 

 high magnifier, we shall see that however fair it appeared 

 as a whole, it was composed of ragged and shapeless parts, 

 and that its beauties were only produced by the defective 

 nature of our senses. Look at a fine miniature painting : 

 it is made up of minute dots, which, when magnified, are 

 seen to be uncouth blotches, coarse and without form. But 

 examine the Divine handiwork ; take a minute animal ; a 

 house-fly from the window ; its head appears little more 

 than an atom, yet it contains various organs of sensation as 

 elaborate as ours : bring one of its eyes beneath a micro- 

 scope, it is composed of a vast multitude of convex lenses, 

 hexagonal in shape, polished, and transparent, and each one 

 endowed with all the parts requisite for perfect and inde- 

 pendent vision. Nothing coarse or shapeless is there ; and 



