352 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



attractive power acting equally upon every individual par- 

 ticle, no set of particles can overcome that repulsive force, so 

 as to form themselves into a new arrangement, viz. into an 

 angle of 60. Therefore, the water remains in a fluid state; 

 but as soon as it becomes agitated, the equilibrium is imme- 

 diately destroyed; the motion, which is impressed on the 

 particles, is the means of bringing some of them nearer to 

 some than to others. A union is the consequence ; and when 

 two particles are thus united, of course their sphere of attrac- 

 tion is enlarged, and other particles will be soon drawn into 

 contact, and that soft, half fluid, half solid mass, is the result." 

 Some time after, he showed me the following passage in 

 Parkes's Chemical Catechism, not as attempting a solution 

 of it, but showing that the fact had been noticed before : 

 " If, when the air is at 22, we expose to it a quantity of 

 water in a tall glass, with a thermometer in it, and covered, 

 the water gradually cools down to 22 without freezing, 

 though 1 degrees below the freezing point. Things being 

 in this situation, if the water be shaken, part of it instantly 

 freezes into a spongy mass, and the temperature of the whole 

 instantly rises to the freezing point" The question has 

 difficulties which are still unexplained. 



C. There go the sleighs ! how merrily they slide along 

 with their jingling bells! I think there is no motion, not 

 even that of a swift boat upon a smooth sea, so pleasant as 

 the riding in a sleigh on a bright sunny day, or moonlight 

 night. Protected from the cold by the warm bear-skins, or 

 buffalo robes, we glide noiselessly along, and see the fences 

 and trees shoot by us, without a jolt or shake to remind us 

 that it is ourselves who are moving ; while the tinkling of the 

 bells on the horse's neck pleases the ear, and all is gratifica- 

 tion ! Oh ! it is the beau ideal of travelling ! 



F. Sleighing-time is a season of general festivity : most 

 farmers possess these vehicles ; and as the agricultural ope- 



