FEBRUARY 
21 
pleasure^ wide and deep, after the rapture of youth is felt 
only in memory. 
C — Dear father, I already love the study of natural 
history ; I scarcely know a greater delight than to bury 
myself in the woods, and watch the habits of the birds and 
insects, or inquire into the hidden causes of the phenomena 
which present themselves to my observation. What is the 
cause of the brilliant appearance we are now observing ? Is 
it common ? 
F, — I have not often observed it here, but in Newfound- 
land it is by no means rare, where it is known by the name 
of silver thaw." It is caused by rain descending when 
the stratum of air nearest the earth is below the temperature 
of 32°, and consequently freezing the instant it touches any 
object : the ice accumulates with every drop, until a thick 
transparent coating is formed. I was once exposed to a 
shower of this kind ; the rain fell fast on my coat, and I 
wondered that the drops did not soak into the cloth ; on 
feeling them with my finger, I found, to my surprise, that 
they were hard frozen, and that my clothes were covered 
with little glassy buttons of ice. It would then change to a 
hail shower, then rain again, and so on ; hail, and freezing 
rain alternating at intervals of a minute or two, for about 
half-an-hour, when it terminated in a heavy snow-storm. I 
infer from these circumstances, that there is a close resem- 
blance between the phenomenon we now observe, and hail ; 
that the silver thaw would be hail if the freezing drops had 
a few yards farther to fall. 
C. — Is not this a favourable time for hunting the deer ? 
F. — Yes : the freezing rain has covered the snow with 
a slight crust, which is not sufficient to sustain the weight 
of the deer, but on which a man on snow-shoes can travel 
