TIMES AND SEASONS. 



itself to the cobwebs, and hangs from the rafters 

 and walls, and from corner to corner, in graceful 

 drapery of the purest white, and of the most 

 fantastic shapes. 



The elegant arabesques that the frost forms on 

 our window-panes, and the thin blades and ser- 

 rated swords of which hoar-frost is composed, are 

 beautiful ; and still more exquisitely charming are 

 the symmetrical six-rayed stars of falling snow, 

 when caught on a dark surface. But I think noth- 

 ing produced by the magic touch of winter can 

 excel a phenomenon I have often seen in the 

 woods of the transatlantic countries named 

 above, where it is familiarly called silver-thaw. It 

 is caused by rain descending when the stratum of 

 air nearest the earth is below 82 deg., and con- 

 sequently freezing the instant it touches any ob- 

 ject; the ice accumulates with every drop of rain, 

 until a transparent, glassy coating is formed. On 

 the shrubs and trees, the effect is magical, and 

 reminds one of fairy scenes described in oriental 

 fables. Every little twig, every branch, every 

 leaf, every blade of grass is enshrined in crystal ; 

 the whole forest is composed of sparkling, trans- 

 parent glass, even to the minute leaves of tfco 

 pines and firs. The sun shines out. What a glit- 

 ter of light! How the beams, broken, as it were, 

 into ten thousand fragments, sparkle and dance, 

 as they are reflected from the trees I Yet it is as 

 fragile as beautiful. A slight shock from a rude 

 hand is sufficient to destroy it. The air is filled 

 with a descending shower of the glittering frag- 

 ments, and the spell is broken at once ; the crystal 

 pageant has vanished, and nothing remains but a 

 brown, leafless tree. 



But all this is the beauty of death; and the 

 naturalist, though he may, and does, admire its 

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