ABOUT COMMON WATER. 845 



universal pulveriser freezing water. I say pulveriser ; 

 for, over and above its work of destruction upon the 

 mountains, has it not disintegrated the bare rocks 

 of the ancient earth, and thus produced the soils 

 which constitute the bases of the whole vegetable 

 world ? 



When water passes from the liquid to the solid 

 condition, it is usually by a process of architecture so 

 refined as to baffle our most powerful microscopes. 

 I never observe without wonder this crystalline 

 architecture. Look at it on the window-panes, or on 

 the flags over which you walk on a frosty morning. 

 Nothing can exceed the beauty of the branching forms 

 that overspread the chilled surfaces. Look at the 

 feathery plumes that sometimes sprout from wood, or 

 cloth, or porous stones. The reflecting mind cannot 

 help receiving from this definite grouping and ordering 

 of the ultimate particles of matter suggestions of the 

 most profound significance. 



Many months ago I read a stanza from your de- 

 lightful poet, Bryant, wherein he refers to the * stars ' 

 of snow. Those stellar forms of falling snow repeat 

 themselves incessantly. I have seen the Alps in mid- 

 winter laden with these fallen stars ; and three or four 

 days ago, they showered their beauty down upon me in 

 England. Dr. Scoresby observed them in the Arctic 

 regions, and Mr. Glashier has made drawings of them 

 nearer home. 



The ice-crystal is hexagonal in form, and the snow- 

 stars invariably shoot forth six rays. The hexagonal 

 architecture is carried on in the formation of common 

 ice. Some years ago I set a large lens in the sun, and 

 brought the solar rays to a focus in the air. I then 

 placed a slab of pure ice across the convergent beam. 



