4 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
ice. But here is another phenomenoiij no less curious : if 
you make a hole obliquely in a heap of snow, so that the 
light shall not shine directly into it, you will see that the 
light which is transmitted through the snow is of a brilliant 
blue colour^ varying in depth of tint, according to the thick- 
ness of the mass. 
C. — I perceive it is so. What is the cause of it ? 
F, — The cause I cannot with certainty make known. 
That blue is the natural colour of the purest water is proved 
by two facts ; the first of which is however very little known 
to landsmen ; namely, that the sea, when out of soundings, 
is of a bright deep blue, (although a tumbler-full taken up 
is as clear as pure spring- water,) the green tint of the sea 
near shore, being caused by the nearness of the bottom. 
The other fact is, that the blueness of the sky, distant 
mountains, &c. depends on the particles of water held in 
vapour in the atmosphere ; the tint of these objects being 
deepened in intensity by an increase of moisture in the air. 
I have thought that possibly the phenomenon we have just 
noticed, maybe but another exemplification of the same law; 
the medium through which the light is transmitted being 
but water frozen ; and that the continual breaking of the 
rays of light through such a multitude of particles may have 
the same effect as the loss of light in passing through a large 
mass of water. But this is only a conjecture. 
C. — There is a woodpecker in the act of boring that de- 
cayed tree ; he makes the hollow woods echo with his loud 
and rapid taps. By his grey back, scarlet poll, and spotted 
wings, I know him to be the Hairy Woodpecker (Picus 
Villosus J. What can he find in that old tree ? 
F» — The grubs of some insects. Many species of beetles. 
