104 
NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
Snow- 
storms, 
The 
blizzard. 
prised to see the white fairy-land, and they had 
no intimation whatever of its making. During 
the day, if the storm increases, the flakes are 
likely to grow smaller and harder—the fall be- 
ing much like the smaller rain that follows the 
few large premonitory drops. With a high 
wind the snow drives almost horizontally at 
times, and when the wind is in gusts the snow- 
sheet waves more lightly and easily than the 
corresponding rain-sheet. 
In Northern countries the light snow driven 
by high gales often results in what is called a 
“blizzard ”—something almost impossible in 
the region of New York, though the name has 
been and is frequently applied to every severe 
snow-storm. A blizzard proper, such as they 
have occasionally in Dakota, brings with it a fine, 
driving snow that strikes the face like a shower 
of sand, stinging, cutting, and almost blinding 
one. The temperature during its prevalence is 
usually so low that there is little or no moisture 
in the air, and the blowing of the wind does not 
allow the snow to catch and lie upon the ground 
except in sheltered places. Gusts and eddies 
are continually swirling great sheets of it 
through the air. If the ground was previously 
covered with snow, the low temperature has 
