BAIN AND SNOW 



103 



In the highest clouds snow is always a possi- 

 ble and often a necessary result of condensation. 

 When it falls it frequently melts into rain in 

 passing through the warmer and lower air. 

 The storm that covers the top of Mt. Blanc with 

 snow falls as rain in the valley of Chamonix. 

 Many of the high mountains have their snow- 

 line above which rain is not known, and we hear 

 their peaks spoken of as being covered with 

 "eternal snow." The words are not accurate, 

 to be sure, for snow even on mountain-tops is 

 continually melting and passing away into gla- 

 ciers to be replenished by new falls ; but the de- 

 scription is true enough in the sense that the 

 peaks are always snow-capped. 



At the beginning of a snow-storm the flakes 

 are few and large, and they settle to the earth 

 like eider-down or thistle-spray. Nothing can 

 exceed the gentleness of these first-falling flakes. 

 They whirl and float and hover and fall so soft- 

 ly, that not a leaf or grass-blade is stirred ; and 

 they melt into the smooth surface of the lake 

 without making the slightest visible impression. 

 And how absolute the silence of their fall ! 

 One by one they gather together on the earth 

 without a sound, and in the morning when the 

 children look out of the window they are sur- 



