NATURAL HISTORY OF CANADA. 
117 
birds, and a few of the familiar subjects of the 
botanical world. It is doubtless a very accept- 
able present for youth, and would not make a 
bad subject for a school-book. The cuts, and 
what is called the getting up, are quite in the 
faultless styleof all Van Voorst's works. There 
is this particular recommendation — the work 
is written in that plain and familiar style that 
nobody can mistake the meaning ; and we wish 
we could say as much of those works in 
general. The following will bear out our re- 
marks ; — 
" Charles. — "What curious and beautiful 
forms the drifted snow assumes ! here it lies 
in gentle undulations, swelling and sinking ; 
there in little ripples, like the sand of a sea 
beach ; — here it stands up like a perpendi- 
cular wall ; there like a conical hill : — here 
it is a long deep trench ; there a flat over- 
hanging table ; but one of the prettiest sights 
is tbat which is presented by a lumber-shed 
hung with cobwebs, after a drift. The snow 
in greater or less masses has attached itself to 
the cobwebs, and hangs from the rafters and 
walls, and from corner to corner, in graceful 
drapery of the purest white ; but of such 
fantastic shapes, as we don't readily see. 
" Father. — The heavy masses of snow which 
rest on the flat horizontal boughs of the 
spruces and hemlocks after a fall, are striking 
and beautiful ; but these must be gently de- 
posited, or they will not rest ; they are not 
di-ifted ; a very slight wind is sufficient to 
shake them ofi". 
" C — We have had some severe weather 
during this month, yet I have not felt nearly 
so much inconvenience from the intensity of 
the cold, as one would expect from the tem- 
perature of the atmosphere. There seems to be 
something enlivening and bracing in our air, 
which prevents our becoming so much affected 
by it. 
" F. — Our cold weather is generally clear 
and uniform, and our bodies become inured 
to its severity. After having spent many 
Avinters in Newfoundland and Canada, I passed 
one in the State of Alabama. I had congra- 
tulated myself on the thought that now I 
should not know cold weather ; that after 
Canada, the winter of Alabama could be no- 
thing to me. But I found that slight frosts, 
and wet windy days, interrupted by warm 
ones, seemed to me almost as cold to the 
feelings as the severity of Canada. Before 
the winter was over, I sailed for England, and 
although the thermometer was on only one 
day as low as 36°, I felt the inconveniences 
of extreme severity, my feet becoming covered 
with the well-known annoyances called chil- 
blains, and my whole frame shivering with 
cold : this was, no doubt, owing to the sudden 
transition from a climate of 76° to that of 36°. 
We here find the intensity of the cold as 
much manifested by collateral circumstances 
as by our bodily sensations. The creaking of 
the snow beneath our feet : the adhesiveness 
of door-latches, or any metal, to our hands, if 
there be the slightest moisture on them ; the 
clouds of steam which pour from our mouth 
and nostrils when we breathe ; the accumu- 
lation of frosted leaves on the windows of 
rooms in which great fires and close stoves 
are kept ; the fringe of ice round the edges 
of our pillows and blankets, i'rom our breath 
having frozen while we slept ; the piercing 
pang felt by the lungs on suddenly emerging 
from a warm room, and inhaling the cold air ; 
the pricking sensation in the cheeks ; the 
whitening of the whiskers, hair, and eye- 
brows ; the icicle at the nose ; the freezing 
together of the tips of the eyelashes, during 
the momentary twinkling of the eye ; these 
warn us of the leal state of the atmosphere, 
and of the danger of remaining long exposed, 
even when it does not feel y^Yj unpleasant to 
the senses. 
" C. — We yesterday found one of the fowls 
in the barn in an awkward predicament : it 
was lying on the floor, unable to stand : and 
on taking it up we perceived that both feet 
were frozen hard, so as to be perfectly stiff, 
and chinking, when struck, like stones. We 
brought it to the house, and put it to lie with 
its feet in a bowl of cold water, where it re- 
mained very contentedly for a considerable 
time, until its feet were thawed ; and they 
seemed perfectly restored. 
" F. — They are for the present, but after 
having once been frozen, they are peculiarly- 
liable to a recurrence of the accident, and 
rarely survive the winter. 
" C — I observed a curious circumstance a 
short time ago : I had taken a bowl of water 
into my room to wash my hands, but some- 
thing delaying me, it remained for an hour 
untouched. Then, when I dipped my hands 
in it, it was perfectly fluid, and altogether free 
from any incipient crystals of congelation ; 
but in an instant it became a semi-solid mass, 
filled with minute particles of ice. 
"i^. — I have often observed the same fact, 
and at one time mentioned it to my friend, 
Mr. W. C. St. John, of Harbor Grace, New- 
foundland, whose acquaintance with the science 
of chemistry led me to ask him for an expla- 
nation. He told me that, as ' water cools 
below 82°, the particles of it af>2iroach one 
another ; but in consequence of its being still 
i. e. unagitated, those particles, although they 
approach, remain equidistant from each other : 
— that is to say, the repulsive power (alias 
the matter of heat) and the attractive power 
acting equally upon Qsevy individual particle;; 
