40 REPORT—1858. 
advancement of it. He also referred to the fact, that the professional guides, headed 
by their chief, sought to prevent his going without the usual complement of guides, 
making no allowance whatever for the circumstance that he was engaged in purely 
scientific pursuits. This man (Balmat) had conceived the idea of placing on the top 
of Mont Blanc a thermometer, for the purpose of noting the minimum winter tem- 
perature that might occur at that altitude, and the author had been instrumental in 
obtaining £15 from the Royal Society for the prosecution of that object. But this 
man was of so independent a nature that he would accept no gratuity, and the result 
was, that after paying £10 for necessary expenses, the remainder was to be returned 
to the Royal Society. 
The author gave in detail the difficulties he had to overcome in ascending 
Mont Blanc. He said that the snow, which at that height was like dry dust, 
was wafted on that day by the wind, and came in great force against the party on 
the summit. The temperature was 20° below the freezing-point, and the effect was 
that the eye-lashes and beards of the party were covered by long ice-crystals. In 
this ascent Balmat’s hands had been frostbitten, and up to this time they had not 
recovered their natural functions. 
He then remarked on the obstructions that were encountered by scientific men 
making observations at Mont Blanc, on account of the arbitrary proceedings of the 
local authorities. A remonstrance was, however, in process of being drawn up, and 
he hoped it would have due weight with the Sardinian Government. The guide 
Balmat was now being prosecuted by the chief guide, on account of his not having 
acted in accordance with the unreasonable interpretation which the chief guide put 
upon the printed instructions, and it behoved the Association to render him every 
assistance for the sake of science. 
On a fresh Form of Crystallization which takes place in the Particles of 
Fallen Snow under Intense Cold. By J. Woi.ey, M.A. 
In passing a winter in Lapland, it is impossible, whether in observing the tracks 
of animals, or merely considering day by day the condition of the roads for sledging, 
or of the snow for the use of snow-skates, not to be struck by the very variable cha- 
racter of the snow, partly caused by winds and fresh falls, partly by the condition of 
the rime or hoar frost upon the surface, but mainly, as it is soon found, by an alter- 
ation in the character of the mass of fallen snow. 
In Lapland, as elsewhere, the snow as it falls is of several kinds. But whatever its 
character, it at first lies more or less lightly on the ground, and if the weather is still 
and not very cold, it may so remain for days; but if the cold increases, the snow 
rapidly sinks; it becomes at first like sand, is crisp to the tread, bears the smaller 
animals, and soon becomes suitable for the skidor or snow-skates. When the cold 
has continued, probably many degrees below zero of Fahrenheit, for two or three 
weeks, not necessarily consecutive (the phenomena are more especially to be observed 
in the cold months of January and February), the snow beneath the surface is found 
to be made up of large pieces of a quarter or a third of an inch in diameter, glitter- 
ing in the sunshine, clear, heavy, highly moveable upon one another, and seen upon 
even a hasty examination to be of a beautiful crystalline structure. On a closer in- 
spection, they are found to be somewhat irregular in shape, with the outline of more 
or less complete hexagons with sides of unequal length; they are formed around 
nuclei by no means placed centrally, often quite where one side of the hexagon 
should be; and they grow in layers of bars one outside the other, often larger in 
section as well as longer as they recede from the nucleus; these bars (learned 
gentlemen will excuse me for not describing a crystal more properly) are free from 
one another except at the angles; those of each layer lie in one plane, often not the 
same as the layer which preceded them lies in. At the angles are usually small 
crystalline projections, rising apparently perpendicular to the general surface of the 
crystal. These crystals are broken with a slight force; and many of those where the 
ope has been crushed have lost their nuclear portion, but retain the true hexagonal 
orm, 
Snow, in the cyndition of which I hope to have given at least some faint notion, is 
called hieta lumi, or sand-snow, in the Finnish language. It yields more water ; and 
