TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 41 
hence, even when it is covered by more recent snow, the Laps take the trouble of 
digging down to it to fill their kettles with. These primitive people also use it in its 
dry state for washing or cleansing their clothes. After first exposing to the external 
cold for some hours the dresses they wish to purify, for reasons which I need not 
further explain, they beat them with sticks upon and under a heap of sand-snow. 
When the winter covering of the ground is in this sandy condition (perhaps the 
moveable state of such shell-sand as that of John o’Groat’s honse may best repre- 
sent it in one respect, and the appearance of a bag of clean crystals of salt give some 
idea of it in another), it is a great advantage to all the animals of the country in sup- 
porting their weight, and is a special comfort to the reindeer, from the facility with 
which they can remove it with their fore-feet so as to get at their food beneath. 
Though intensely cold to a naked hand, it is much better than fresh snow for lying 
upon, as it does not yield too much to the weight of the body, and does not get into 
the nicks of the clothes, or melt in the fur. I may mention, that with only a thick 
pair of stockings on, one can walk for some little distance from a bivouac without 
risk of getting either wet or cold in the feet; and before a fire in the woods this 
snow never becomes sloppy, but seems to disappear only by evaporation, which 
greatly adds to the facilities of passing the long winter nights in a Lapland forest. 
The same thing is in a great measure true in the spring; the snow is very rarely to 
be found in that miserable state which marks the breaking up of a snow in England. 
Concerning the formation of these crystals, I made experiments by burying in the 
snow at certain intervals of time, chip boxes, some empty and some containing fresh 
snow : I was prevented from fully carrying out and registering my observations, but 
I found that the changes went on in the boxes equally with the external snow, and 
in the boxes that contained nothing but air, but nevertheless were not so tightly 
closed as to prevent the transmission of air containing water in solution, crystals 
attaching themselves to the sides and top, but never to. the floor of the box, which 
crystals greatly resembled those in the snow; they were, however, often much 
longer, even to upwards of half an inch in length. In the course of my observations, I 
found that;this sand-snow formed principally in open places, on lakes, bare soils, &c., 
growing less on spongy grounds, scarcely at all upon logs of wood or outbuildings. 
INSTRUMENTS. 
On Dials which give the Latitude, the line of North and South, and Chrono- 
meter Time. By WArRAND CARLILE. 
Working models were exhibited. By one model the latitude is read off at once 
without calculating, and the true line of north and south obtained without a mari- 
ner’s compass. With the assistance of the compass, the latitude at sea could be read 
off at any hour when the sun shines. The other model gives true chronometer time, 
and could easily be constructed to give Greenwich time at any place. 
CHEMISTRY. 
Address by Sir J. F. W. Herscuet, Bart., President of the Section. 
Tuoveu it is with much satisfaction that I find myself placed in the Chair of this Sec- 
tion, it is a feeling not untempered with serious misgivings. On none of the occasions 
when I have attended the Meetings of the British Association, has it ever been in my 
power to be present at any Session of the Chemical Section; and attached as I have 
always been to that branch of science, and contemplating with the most lively sympathy 
the labours of its more active members, this has been to me a source of great regret and 
disappointment. And now when the opportunity I have always so earnestly desired 
is accorded me in its fullest extent, it comes accompanied with the painful feeling of 
occupying a position, which probably nut one of the distinguished cultivators of the 
