SNOW. 85 



With falling snow there is no audible sound, 

 and perhaps one of the greatest charms of this 

 especial operation of Nature is its noiselessness. 

 There is something indescribably beautiful and 

 graceful in the descent of the feathery flakes of 

 purest white as they come, thick and fast, upon 

 every level surface and upon every ' coign of 

 vantage.' The process begins and continues in ' 

 silence — continuing oftentimes with such per- 

 sistence as to suspend human operations by 

 blocking up the artificial channels of communi- 

 cation established by industrial populations ; and 

 the smallness, the lightness, -and the adhesiveness 

 of the individual particles which compose a snow- 

 storm, enable fallen snow to assume the pictu- 

 resqueness which lends so attractive an aspect to 

 our Winters. But irregularity of the surface 

 on which the snow falls is essential, in order to 

 produce this picturesqueness — produced by the 

 presence of snow on the landscape — picturesque- 

 ness, we mean, in an external degree, for as we 

 shall see anon, apart from their effect as a whole, 

 individual snowflakes have each an intrinsic 

 beauty and interest. A level ground is soon 



