The Wonderworld of Ice Crystals 



More than a thousand different forms. You can 

 study many of them at home with a magnifying glass 



b.veb was frst strung with dewdrops, which froze to globules of ice as the 

 air grew colder. This is one form of hoarfrost, but lacks the interest of the crystalline forms 



WHEN winter settles down upon the 

 earth, a new artist appears upon 

 the scene. Hardly less varied and 

 not a whit less exquisite than the products 

 of the vegetable kingdom are the flower-like 

 wonders of ice, snow and hoarfrost. If 

 their beauty is not fully appreciated, it is 

 because a close inspection is needed to 

 reveal it. In fact, whoever would feast 

 his eyes on the crystal marsels of the frosty 

 countryside, or of his own windowpane, 

 needs to be provided with a good magnify- 

 ing glass, or he will miss half the show. 



The study of ice crystals has an interest- 

 ing histor\-, beginning with the works of 

 Albertus Magnus, who gravely informs us 

 that "star-like snow" falls only in February 

 and March. The earliest drawings of snow 

 cr>stals and also of frostwork on window- 

 panes were made by the learned Arch- 

 bishop of Upsala, Olaus Magnus, in the 

 middle of the sixteenth century. 



A new era has, however, been introduced 



in our own time in this class of investiga- 

 tions by the application of photography to 

 the subject. Today more than a thousand 

 diff^erent forms of snow and ice cr^-stals 

 may be studied in collections of "micro- 

 photographs." One of the facts revealed by 

 the camera is that the perfectly regular 

 forms of these crystals shown in drawings 

 are comparatively uncommon in Nature. 

 When a cr\-stal is originally formed it is, un- 

 doubtedly, perfectly symmetrical, but it is 

 so fragile that it is easily mutilated by the 

 wind and by contact with other crystals. 

 In very calm weather, at the beginning of a 

 snowstorm, many single and perfect crystals 

 are wafted gently to earth, and such 

 cr>'stals may also be seen floating in the air 

 in the intense cold of the polar regions, 

 constituting the sparkling ice-haze, known 

 to explorers as "diamond snow," or 

 "diamond dust." 



Snow is produced directly from water 

 vapor (i. e., water in a gaseous state) that 



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