fcrent snow stars are like. Yon can find out much more easily than 

 I could tell you. You sliould draw pictures of as many as possible, 

 and see how ninny different kinds of stars you can get. You will 

 easily find half a do^en; others have fo-und as many as a thousand. 

 If you count the number of rays on each of the different stars you will 

 find something very interesting about them. Perhaps the day on 

 which von first try may not be a very good day for observing, for there 

 may be too much wind and many stars may stick together or they may 

 be too small. But persevere and you will find that some day you will 

 get a good view of these snowy gems. 



But we have not yet answered the question, "What is snow?" Snow 

 flakes are not frozen water-drops, for if they were they would be round 

 like water-droi)S. They consist of particles of water vapor which have 

 been caught and fixed in position by some invisible power before they 

 united to form water-drops. This power is not merely the coldness 

 of the air, for that could not give the snow flakes their regular shape. 

 The star-making power is something more than mere cold or even the 

 cohesion which we spoke of before, but we shall not at the present 

 time attempt to explain it. If you wish to flnd the effect of great cold 

 alone on water vapor, fill a tumbler with a mixture of salt and snow 

 and observe how the vapor particles from the air are deposited on the 

 outside, owing to the intense cold produced by the freezing mixture. 

 What you get bere is much like the hoarfrost that takes the place 

 of dew on very cold nights, and, in fact, hoarfrost is merely frozen 

 water vapor which did not become liquid before freezing. 



Perhaps you are somewhat surprised at the statement that vapor 

 can turn into a kind of ice, such as snow or hoarfrost, .without first 

 becoming liquid water. Yet there is no doubt about it, and it is no 

 more surprising than the other fact that snow or ice can turn into 

 vapor without first becoming water. For instance, when there is very 

 cold weather for two or three days together it is often found that the 

 snow disappears, although the weather is quite too cold for it to melt. 

 It has simply flown away particle by particle as vapor. You may have 

 to wait a good wliile before you get a chance to observe this, but there 

 is anotlier way of noticing the same thing. The next time that 

 clothes are jiiit out to dry on a very cold day notice that the clothes 

 can dry ahnost completely although it was certainly too cold for the 

 ice on them to melt into water. You may say that it has melted into 

 vapor. 



Although snow does not consist of frozen water-drops, yet we 

 are all familiar with fi'iizen water-drops under the name of hail. 

 'J'liese little iee halls conie down sniiieliiiies ill sunimei' wlieii the air 



