SNOW 181 
milder in promise, with a sky of lead, deepen- 
ing near the horizon into darker films of iron. 
Then, while all the nerves of the universe seem 
rigid and tense, the first reluctant flake steals 
slowly down, like a tear. In a few hours the 
whole atmosphere begins to relax once more, 
and in our astonishing climate very possibly the 
snow changes to rain in twenty-four hours, and 
a thaw sets in. It is not strange, therefore, that 
snow, which to Southern races is typical of cold 
and terror, brings associations of warmth and 
shelter to the children of the North. 
Snow, indeed, actually nourishes animal life. 
It holds in its bosom numerous animalcules: 
you may have a glass of water, perfectly free 
from zzfusoria, which yet, after your dissolving 
in it a handful of snow, will show itself full of 
microscopic creatures, shrimp-like and swift ; 
and the famous red snow of the Arctic regions 
is only an exhibition of the same property. It 
has sometimes been fancied that persons buried 
under the snow have received sustenance 
through the pores of the skin, like reptiles 
embedded in rock. Elizabeth Woodcock lived 
eight days beneath a snowdrift, in 1799, without 
eating a morsel ; anda Swiss family were buried 
beneath an avalanche, in a manger, for five 
months, in 1755, with no food but a trifling 
store of chestnuts and a small daily supply of 
