Marvels of the Universe 627 
In most of the Skates, indeed, locomotion by means of the tail would be impossible, this organ 
serving merely for steering purposes. In some species, however, it has become modified to form an 
excessively long, whip-like organ, armed with a large and most poisonous spine, thus serving both 
as a rudder and a weapon of offence. 
IGE BLOW DRS 
BY MRS. AUBREY LE BLOND. 
PERHAPS the most beautiful feature of an Alpine winter is the Ice Flower, or monster hoar frost, 
which adorns the upland Swiss valleys. 
In certain places, however, Ice Flowers are finer and more often seen than in others, the best 
examples being always met with on comparatively small lakes fed by large streams. 
The Lake of St. Moritz, in the Engadine, is an ideal home of the Ice Flower, for the stretch 
of water, being of moderate size, quickly catches all over and offers a surface of smooth, black ice, 
while the river Inn, which feeds it, enters by a fast-flowing stream, which does not freeze, and 
leaves it over a cascade of open water. 
Above these two pieces of moving water dense mist hangs at night, and gently drifts over the 
black ice. The mist is composed of tiny crystals of ice—for at the usual temperature, many degrees 
below freezing-point, water could not remain in suspension. Some of these infinitesimal rods of ice 
Photo by] [Mrs, Aubrey Le Blond. 
DETAIL OF AN ICE FLOWER. 
The combination of crystal upon crystal can be distinguished in the photograph. The velocity of their impact causes them 
to melt at the point of contact; but the pressure ceases,once they are united, and they freeze together. 
