December 
i g i 6 
13 
THE FRAGILE WINTER IEWELRY OF THE SKY 
D ID you ever study a snowflake— 
really study it under a magni¬ 
fying glass as it lay on the window 
ledge some grey, cold morning in De¬ 
cember? Then you do not need to be 
told how exquisitely wrought, how 
delicately traced in geometrical de¬ 
signs it is. It may be any one of thou¬ 
sands of shapes, but always its gen¬ 
eral contour will be hexagonal, the one 
universal rule in the formation of 
these glittering jewels of the sky. In¬ 
numerable minute particles combine to 
produce each flake, and precisely as 
the facets of a cut diamond flash in 
Again, there is the combination of 
“ plates ” and “needles ” which results in a 
flake with a distinct border as well as cen¬ 
tral pattern 
At times the contour of the radiating arms 
is curiously fluted, bearing no slight re¬ 
semblance to the leaves of certain trees 
A Page of Snowflakes 
as Caught Under the 
Microscope of 
Even the simpler geometrical shapes dif¬ 
fer from one another in the details of their 
crystallization so that no two are exactly 
alike throughout 
Most complicated of all are the fringed 
flakes made up of particles which the 
scientist calls “plates." “needles" and 
“spiculw ,” curiously combined 
the light, so do the countless reflect¬ 
ing surfaces of these tiny atoms lend 
a look of whiteness to the whole. 
If each of the component parts of the flake 
xoere not in itself quite regular in shape, 
their combination would not take such 
symmetrical forms 
In every case the flake is hexagonal. This 
appears to be the one universal rule in the 
configuration of these exquisite crystals 
Here, although the detail of the outline dif¬ 
fers from the preceding flakes, each of the 
main points is equidistant from the center 
Always there is a definite center, a sort of 
nucleus or hub from which the six princi¬ 
pal needles radiate like a wheel's spokes 
