THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
1 18 
BEAUTIFUL AND INTERESTING FORMS OF SNOWFLAKES. 
perative. The reader can imagine, once 
an extra beautiful crystal is found, the 
intense anxiety of the photographer to 
photograph it before evaporation gets 
in its work. When a snow crystal evap- 
orates it is gone forever. Another just 
like it will never be found for no two 
of the tabular forms are ever exactly 
alike. This infinite diversity gives in- 
tense fascination to the work, for each 
one looked at is almost sure to picture 
new features or a new combination of 
old features, and one is always justi- 
fied in the expectation of finding speci- 
mens incomparably more beautiful 
than any hitherto found. There are 
usually one or two times during a given 
winter when the flakes are unusually 
choice. At such times one is torn with 
mixed emotions of delight and despair. 
He is thrilled and amazed at the mar- 
velous beauty of the flakes and in de- 
spair that so few of the countless snow 
gems, masterpieces of Nature’s art, can 
be preserved by a photograph. The de- 
sire comes Oh for a thousand hands, a 
thousand cameras, to preserve more of 
this exquisite beauty so lavishly scat- 
tered over the earth. And yet there 
should be no despair, for this miracle, 
