42 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



in relation to the presence or absence of a continuous winter 

 covering of snow is geographical rather than one for a Nature Study 

 course pure and simple, yet a great many suggestive points can 

 be touched upon which will clear the way for the teacher of geo- 

 graphy later. That while in this country a winter snowstorm of 

 considerable dimensions impedes transport in every direction, in 

 the Far North of America the winter is the only time when trans- 

 port can be carried on with any ease, is, for instance, a point very 

 well worth emphasising in the course of a lesson on snow. 



One would also point out that the locking up of so large an 

 amount of water in the form of snow means a winter dryness in 

 many countries very foreign to our experience, while the possibility 

 of the sudden melting of a large bulk of snow means a liability to 

 a type of spring flood from which we are as a rule immune here. 

 Again, in southern and central Florida snow does not fall, and a 

 wholly exceptional snowstorm recorded in 1774 was described by 

 the inhabitants as " an extraordinary white rain/' The interest 

 of the class in atmospheric phenomena will be greatly increased 

 if the attempt is made in these ways always to attack the subject 

 first from the human side in their relation to human beings like 

 themselves. It is very important to bear constantly in mind that 

 the abstract " scientific " standpoint is late in development, both 

 in the case of the individual and of the race. Unless it be rigor- 

 ously excluded from the earlier stages of the Nature Study 

 course, no progress from the educational point of view can be 

 hoped for. 



In connection with individual storms, in addition to measur- 

 ing the amount of water yielded by a given amount of snow at the 

 time of its first fall, the same observation should be repeated 

 in the days that follow, as the snow becomes increasingly dense. 

 A snow ball or the snow man in the playground should be used to 

 show further how the air which fills the interstices of the snow 

 can be squeezed out, so as to bring the particles of ice nearer 

 and nearer together. A heap of snow should also be watered at 

 night while the frost lasts, and the deeper layers carefully 

 examined to show how they become more and more ice-like. 

 At the same time we note that while at the bottom of drifts, and 

 especially if there is alternation of frost and thaw, the snow 



