S N O 



S N O 



which it contains : befides, fnow, in melting, moiftens and 

 pulverizes the foil whicli had been bound up by the frofl, 

 and thus fits it for the abforption of the vernal dews and 

 rain ; and as its water has a tendency to putrefadlion, it 

 feems, on many accounts, without admitting it to contain 

 any nitre, to be admirably adapted to promote vegetation. 

 Watfon's Chem. EfT. vol. ii. p. 77, &c. 



It is fuppofed by Dr. Darwin, that it may be true, that 

 fnows of long duration in our winters may be lefs injurious 

 to vegetation than great rains and Ihorter froft. Firft, be- 

 caufe great rains carry down many thoufand pounds worth 

 of the beft manure into the fea ; wliereas fnow didolves gra- 

 dually, the upper furface, as it thaws, Hiding over the un- 

 der part, which remains frozen, and thence carries away lefs 

 from the land into the rivers ; whence a fnow flood may be 

 diltinguifhed from a rain flood by the tranfparency of the 

 water. Secondly, fnow protefta vegetables from the feve- 

 rity of the froft ; fince it is generally in a ftate of thaw 

 where it is in contadl with the earth ; as the earth's heat is 

 48°, and that of thawing fnow 32°. The plants between 

 them are generally kept in a degree of heat about 40°, by 

 which many of them are preferved. On this account, fome 

 plants from Siberia were faid to perifli by the frofts at Up- 

 fal ; becaufe the fnows did not commence at the fame time as 

 in the colder climate from which they were brought. And 

 thus, fays he, the lichen rangiferinus, coral mofs, vegetates 

 beneath the fnow in Siberia, where the degree of heat is 

 "■Kvays about 40°; that is, in the middle between the freezing 

 Hit and the common heat of the earth. And as this ve- 

 M-table is, for many months of the winter, the fole food of 

 the rein-deer, who digs furrows in the fnow to find it ; and 

 a i the milk and flefli of this animal are almoft the only fufte- 

 nancc which can be procured by the natives during the long 

 winters of thofe higher latitudes, this mofs may be faid to 

 liipport fome millions of mankind. And it is added, that 

 fnow protefts vegetables, that are covered by it, from cold, 

 both becaufe it is a bad conductor of heat itfelf, and con- 

 tains much air in its pores. When living animals are buried 

 in fnow, as flieep, or hares, the water which their warmtli 

 produces, becomes abforbed into the furrounding fnow by 

 capillary attradlion, and the creatures are not raoillened by 

 its dropping on them ; but the cavity enlarges, as the fnow 

 diflblvcs, affording them both a dry and a warm habitation. 

 If this was generally known, many cold and weary travel- 

 lers in fnowy nights might be laved by covering thcmfelvcs 

 with fnow, inftead of endeavouring to proceed. It fhould 

 he added, lie fays, that HaHenfiatz has endeavoured to (hew, 

 by ingenious chemical experiments, that rain-water and fnow 

 contain both of them a redundancy of oxygen, compared 

 u itli river-water, which they may have acquired in their de- 

 Iccnt through the atmofphere ; and that as oxygen is (hewn 

 by the experiments of Ingenhouz and Senebier, to promote 

 '' e growth of feeds and of plants, he concludes that rain- 

 ier and fnow promote vegetation in a much greater degree 

 than river-water and ice, which feems to accord with the po- 

 pular obfervations on this fubjeft. 



Deep and drifting (hows are often very dangerous and 

 troublefomc on (hecp-farms, and the elevated trafts on which 

 they are kept during the winter feafon, fo as to require and 

 demand much attention in the (hepherd to prevent their fatal 

 c(Ie6ts and confcqucnces. 



It is a popular error, that the firft fnow that falls in the 

 year has particular virtues. In Italy they cool their wines 

 all the fummer with fnow-water. 



Snow may be preferved by ramming it down in a dry 

 place under ground, and covering it well with chaff. At 

 Leghorn they ufe barley chaff for this purpofe. 

 Vol. XXXIII. 



Snow and ice are alfo preferved with ftraw or reed*.> 

 Mr. Boyle has defcribed the manner in his experimental hif- 

 tory of cold. See IcE and \ciL-Houfe. 



It is ufual in hot countries to mix fnow andice with their 

 wine. Hence Pliny fays, " Hi nives, illi glaciem potant, 

 poenafque montium in voluptatem gulae vertunt." 



Signior Sarotti, in the Philofophical Tranfaftions, men- 

 tions a red, or bloody fnow, which fell on the mountains La 

 Langhc, near Genoa, on St. Jofeph's day. This fnow, 

 when fqueezed, yielded a liquor of the fame red colour. 



Snow of a very bright red colour has fometimes been 

 found on the fummits of the higheft mountains. The mat- 

 ter vvliich colours it burns with a fmell fimilar to that of a 

 great many vegetable fubftances. Sauffure, who often col- 

 le6ted fuch fnow on the Alps, was induced by this property, 

 as well as by its being found in fummer, and in places where 

 many plants were in flower, to confider the colouring mat- 

 ter as the farina of fome plant. C. Ramond, who found 

 this duft on the fnow of the Pyrenees, remarked, that it is 

 heavier than water, and hence fulpefted it to be of mineral 

 origin ; and he, indeed, found that it arifes from the de- 

 compofition of certain micas. Tiiis decompofition requires, 

 without doubt, the conditions mentioned by Sauifure ; for 

 C. Ramond found, that they are neceffary on the Pyrenees, 

 as well as on the Alps. 



Snow, in Sea Language, is generally the largell of all 

 two-mailed vedels employed by Europeans, and the mod 

 convenient for navigation. The (ails and rigging on the 

 main-maft and fore-maft of a fnow are exaftly iimilar to 

 thofe on the fame malts in a (hip, only that there is a fmall 

 malt behind the main-maft of the former, which carries a 

 fail nearly refembling the mizen of a (hip. The foot of 

 this maft is fixed in a block of wood on the quarter-deck, 

 abaft the main-maft, and the head of it is attached to the 

 after-part of the main-top. The fail, which is called the 

 try-fail, is extended from its maft towards the ftern of the 

 vellel. When (loops of war are rigged as fnows, they 

 are furnilhed with a horfe (fee Horse), which anfwers the 

 purpofe of the try-fail-maft, the fore-part of the fail being 

 attached by rings to the faid horfe, in different parts of 

 Its height. Falconer. 



Snow-Ball Tree, in Botany, a fpecies of Fibumum ; which 

 fee. 



S^ov!-Berry. See CillococCA. 



Snow-Berry Btijlj, a fpecies of Lonicera ; which fee. 

 Snow-Bird, in Ornithology, the Emberiza Nivalis of 

 Linnxus ; whicli fee. 



Tliefe birds arc called in Sco\.\7mA fnoivjlaies, becaufe 

 they appear in hard weather and in deep fnows. Some few 

 breed in the Highlands, on the fummits of the higheft hills, 

 but the greateli number migrate from the extreme north. 

 Their appearance is a certain forerunner of hard weather 

 and ftorms of fnow, being driven by the cold from their 

 common retreats. Their progrefs fouthvvard is probably 

 thus : Spitzbergen and Greenland, Hudlon's Bay, the 

 Lapland Alps, Scandinavia, Iceland, the Ferro iflcs, Shet- 

 land, Orknies, Scotland, and the Cheviot hilh. They 

 vifit, at that feafon, all parts of the norlhern hcmifph.-re, 

 PrulFia, Auftria, and Siberia. They arrive lean and return 

 fat. In their flight they keep chile to each other, and 

 fling themfelves coUediveiy into the form of a ball, at 

 which inftant the fowler makes great liavock among them. 

 Pennant. 



Ssow-Drop, ill Botany. See Galantuus. 

 S!<owDrop, Great. Sec LEUCOitiM. 

 Ssow-Droj> Tree- See ClIlONANTllus. 

 Stiow-Maill, in Sieep Farming, a term ufually applied by 

 D d the 



