under pressure at Temperatures below 32° F. 447 
Another attempt was made to detect the presence of mois- 
ture. I sprinkled into the snow little particles of water-paint. 
These paints are quite sensitive to moisture; so much so that, 
if buried in lightly oe snow without pressure, at a tem- 
perature as low as 12° F., they attract moisture and soften by 
an action similar to that Sf common salt. And when barely 
touched to really moist snow o , the snow is promptly 
ss with a blotch which spreads around the point of 
cg ct. 
w it is manifest that this oo. furnishes a delicate test of 
the phesiien of moisture. If at temperatures lying in the 
region of zero Fahrenheit moisture were being forced through 
he interstices of the snow, even in minute quantity, it would 
necessarily carry with it some traces of color from the paint 
sprinkled in the mass; and this is observed to be me case with 
snow under pressure near to 82°, the paint spreading in large 
at this temperature is miei to the liquefying io ‘of the 
snow, because as will be seen in the trials detailed below, no 
sign of such spreading brie be detected at the temperature 
ffec 
seat the process, it is not Fae until the snow has been 
so completely consolidated as to prevent the passage among its 
particles of even so minute a quantity of moisture as would 
be necessary to carry color along ea ut snow so consol- 
idated would be little if any short of ice. I have thought it 
better to state the points involved in oe following observations 
before giving their details. 
Observations with wooden moulds. 
Experiment No. 1, bed i Tth.—Temperatures. 12 noon 9° F., 4.20 p. Mm. 3° F., 
tak 
off. The ice was ect. whole prism had lost its opacity so far as to 
transmit the light, the snowy whiteness was gone and the whiteness of ice—a gray 
ice had taken its place. A layer of particles of water paint was in full view, on 
ri of the 
were perfectly sharp asa their lines perfectly well defined. The same was true 
when the prism was Sane The particles scattered through the mass exhibited 
no sign of spreading 
