The Mighty Deep 



Quicksilver, known to us usually as a liquid, may 

 be frozen, though not without a greater amount 

 of cold than that which freezes water. Then, 

 again, molten iron — that is, iron made soft 

 through great heat — is a liquid which when cold 

 hardens into a solid. Iron as we most often see 

 it is simply in its frozen state ; just as much the 

 frozen form of iron as ice is the frozen form 

 of water. 



And the freezing- of the two comes about in 

 the same mode. As molten iron cools and 

 hardens it crystallizes. Minute needles, far too 

 minute to be seen, take shape, crossing and re- 

 crossing at various angles, till the whole becomes 

 a solid mass of interlaced iron needles, held in 

 position by attraction. When water changes into 

 ice, the same thing happens. The water-particles 

 shape themselves into tiny needles, and these ice- 

 needles cross and re-cross, till they are knitted 

 into a compact mass, something like the mass of 

 iron needles. 



Nor are needles alone found in ice. Exquisite 

 forms resemblincr ice-flowers are there also, com- 

 monly invisible, but composed of ice-needles 

 woven into various shapes, which again are 

 woven into the fabric of the solid ice. So a 

 block of ice may perhaps be said to be formed 



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