1 114 n 



FROST CRYSTALS 



December 21, 1854. Walden is frozen over, ap- 

 parently about two inches thick. It is very thickly 

 covered with what C. calls ice-rosettes, i.e., those 

 small pinches of crystallized snow, — as thickly as 

 if it had snowed in that form. I think it is a sort of 

 hoar frost on the ice. 



Journal, vii, 88. 



January 1, 1856. On the ice at Walden are very 

 beautiful great leaf crystals in great profusion. The 

 ice is frequently thickly covered with them for many 

 rods. They seem to be connected with the rosettes, 

 — a running together of them. They look like a loose 

 web of small white feathers springing from a tuft of 

 down, as if a feather bed had been shaken over the 

 ice. They are, on a close examination, surprisingly 

 perfect leaves, like ferns, only very broad for their 

 length and commonly more on one side the midrib 

 than the other. They are so thin and fragile that they 

 melt under your breath while looking closely at them. 



Journal, viii, 77. 



