28 
THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
adhere to each other, making those shapeless masses which 
we call large flakes, and which we justly consider a sign 
that the snow will end in rain, as indicating a temperature 
high enough to melt the falling snow. If the air near the 
earth is warmer than that above, the crystals melt as soon 
as they are deposited : if there is any wind, the crystals are 
blown about, and so beaten against each other as to be 
broken into minute fragments, forming small snow, which 
never falls except during wind. They must be received on 
a dark substance to display them properly, and even at the 
best, their minuteness, rarely exceeding an eighth of an inch 
in diameter, is sufficient to cause them to be overlooked by 
any eye, but one accustomed to pry into the minutiae of 
creation. 
C, — How brilliant is their polish, even when highly 
magnified ; and how perfect and well-defined their outline ! 
F, — Oh, yes I the works of God alone will bear a close 
examination. If we take the most delicate production of hu- 
man workmanship, and subject its parts to the power of a 
high magnifier, we shall see that however fair it appeared 
as a whole, it was composed of ragged and shapeless parts, 
and that its beauties were only, produced by the defective 
nature of our senses. Look at a fine miniature painting: 
it is made up of minute dots, which, when magnified, are 
seen to be uncouth blotches, coarse and without form. But 
examine the Divine handiwork ; take a minute animal ; a 
house-fly from the window ; its head appears little more 
than an atom, yet it contains various organs of sensation as 
elaborate as ours : bring one of its eyes beneath a micro- 
scope, — -it is composed of a vast multitude of convex lenses, 
hexagonal in shape, polished, and transparent, and each one 
endowed with all the parts requisite for perfect and inde- 
pendent vision. Nothing coarse or shapeless is there ; and 
