EFFECTS OF FROST. 203 



hanced by the formation of innumerable minute 

 crystals which sparkle literally with as much lus- 

 trous beauty as the diamond. On one occasion 

 Scoresby's ship was decorated with uncommon mag- 

 nificence, and in a peculiarly interesting manner. 



" In the course of the night," he writes, " the 

 rigging of the ship was most splendidly decorated 

 with a fringe of delicate crystals. The general 

 form of these was that of a feather having half of 

 the vane removed. Near the surface of the ropes 

 was first a small direct line of very white particles, 

 constituting the stem or shaft of the feather ; and 

 from each of these fibres, in another plane, proceeded 

 a short delicate range of spiculse or rays, discover- 

 able only by the help of a microscope, with which 

 the elegant texture and systematic construction of 

 the feather were completed. Many of these crystals, 

 possessing a perfect arrangement of the different 

 parts corresponding with the shaft, vane, and rachis 

 of a feather, were upwards of an inch in length, and 

 three-fourths of an inch in breadth. Some consisted 

 of a single flake or feather, but many of them gave 

 rise to other feathers, which sprang from the surface 

 of the vane at the usual angle. There seemed to 

 be no limit to the magnitude of these feathers, so 

 long as the producing cause continued to operate, 

 until their weight became so great, or the action of 

 the wind so forcible, that they were broken off, and 

 fell in flakes to the deck of the ship." 



It is impossible for the mind to conceive the effect 



