
^ 
806 THE LILIES OF THE FIELDS, ETC. 
among the scientific institutions at home and abroad, this 
question appears to be solved simply and completely. It is 
to be hoped that the intellectual inertia, always to be over- 
come by new and startling ideas, however plain and well 
founded, may not seriously retard the spreading of the 
answer to the question here raised: How is a snow-crys- 
tal built? 
We cannot conclude this little sketch with more appro- 
priate words than the description of the snow-crystal given 
by Prof. Tyndall, in his fourth lecture of the admirable 
work, “Heat as a mode of motion." The great philosopher 
of the Royal Institution says : 
"Snow, perfectly formed, is not an irregular aggregate of 
 ice-particles ; in a calm atmosphere the aqueous atoms ar- 
range themselves so as to form the most exquisite figures. 
i [See the figures given in the preceding parts of this adie ] 
The snow-crystals formed in a calm atmosphere are built 
upon the same type: the molecules arrange themselves to 
form hexagonal stars. From a central nucleus shoot six 
spicule, every two of which are separated by an angle of 
609. From these central ribs smaller spicule shoot right 
and left, with unerring fidelity to the angle 609, and from 
these again other smaller ones diverge at the same angle. 
The six-leaved blossoms assume the most wonderful variety 
of form; their tracery is of the finest frozen gauze, an 
round about their corners other rosettes of smaller dimen- 
sions often cling. Beauty is superposed upon beauty, as if 
nature once committed to her task took delight in showing: 
even within the narrowest limits, the wealth of her resour- 
ces.” 


