Snow-Flakes

Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes:

Underscores “” before and after a word or phrase indicate italics_ in the original text. Equal signs “=” before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold= in the original text. Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals. Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs. Deprecated spellings have been preserved. Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.

SNOW-FLAKES:

A CHAPTER FROM THE

BOOK OF NATURE.

HAST THOU ENTERED INTO THE TREASURES OF THE SNOW? JOB xxxviii. 22.

“Acquaint thyself with God, if thou wouldst taste His works. Admitted once to his embrace, Thou shalt perceive that thou wast blind before; Thine eye shall be instructed; and thine heart, Made pure, shall relish with divine delight, Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought.” COWPER.

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, No. 28 CORNHILL, BOSTON.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

GEO. C. RAND & AVERY, STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS.

PREFACE

A brief article on Snow-flakes, in one of the periodicals published by the American Tract Society in the winter of 1862-3, accompanied by a cut exhibiting some of their forms, elicited from its readers many expressions of interest, and suggested the preparation of a book on this curious but generally little-known subject.

The beautiful forms of many of the snow-crystals were observed and sketched more than a century ago. The Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for 1755, contain representations of ninety-one varieties, with descriptions by Dr. Nettis. Captain William Scoresby, the eminent English navigator, has given, in his Arctic Regions, drawings of ninety-six varieties. More recently, numerous specimens, with accompanying descriptions, have been given to the public by James Glaisher, Esq., of Lewisham, England. It is from these sources, chiefly, that the figures here exhibited have been derived.

It has been no part of our design, in this work, to enter into any scientific statements concerning the snow-flakes, or the laws of their formation. A brief general description of them is all that has been attempted. Yet the reader should not, from this, infer that there is any question respecting the truthfulness of the sketches. The drawings were originally made with scientific precision, and have been carefully copied. A few simple figures at the top of page 11 are designed to show the primary geometrical forms under which the snow-vapor crystallizes. With that exception, they are all representations of individual crystals, actually observed and sketched with the aid of the microscope.

It is proper to add, however, that these representations are highly magnified, especially those on the last two or three plates. The real size of the crystals observed by Scoresby varied from one thirty-fifth to one-third of an inch in diameter. Dr. Nettis remarks: “The natural size of most of the shining, quadrangular particles, and of the little stars of snow, as well the simple as the more compound ones, does not exceed the twentieth part of an inch.” The dimensions as well as form of the crystals seem to depend upon the amount of vapor in the atmosphere, the temperature, and other circumstances not easy to specify.

We may be permitted to express the hope that many of our readers will examine for themselves these beautiful productions of nature. In our own climate, the “treasures of the snow” are open to all who choose to explore them; and there can scarcely be an amusement more entertaining, and at the same time instructive, than that of observing and sketching these delicate crystals. No expensive or complicated apparatus is needed for this purpose. A good microscope is the chief requisite; besides which, a pair of dividers and a rule will be sufficient. We subjoin a statement from Mr. Glaisher of his own mode of making his examinations.

“For the information of those who would carefully observe snow-crystals, I may remark that my own plan of procedure is to expose a thick surface of plate-glass on the outer side of the window, resting on the ledge. Seated within the room, I am enabled, with comparative comfort, and at my leisure, to make my drawings and record my observations, the accuracy of which I am able to verify to my satisfaction, as the crystal received upon the cold surface of the glass, itself several degrees below freezing, remains a sufficient length of time for the requirements of the observer. In many cases, it becomes frozen to the glass, and is thus secured from the influence of the wind, which not unfrequently snatches away some most intricate form from the desiring eye of the observer.”

If this work shall be the means of introducing any of our readers to the knowledge of this interesting department of the Creator’s works, and eliciting those sentiments of admiration and reverence which his wonder-working power should inspire in every beholder, it will not have been issued in vain.

I. P. W.

BOSTON, 1863.

1. SNOW STRUCTURE, 13 2. UNITY IN DIVERSITY, 23 3. PERFECTION, 31 4. PURITY, 41 5. GRACE, 51 6. BEAUTY, 63 7. WEAKNESS, 75 8. POWER, 89 9. GLADNESS, 101 10. GLOOM, 115 11. BENEFICENCE, 125 12. INSTRUCTION, 139

Snow Structure

He saith to the Snow, Be thou on the face of the Earth.—Job 37:6.

When the watery vapors in the atmosphere are in sufficient quantities to be precipitated to the earth, and at the same time their temperature is at or below the freezing point, their particles unite, but not as fluid drops. In approaching each other they arrange themselves in regular figures, called crystals. The various forms of these may be grouped into three general classes.

1. Prismatic, having three or six sides, usually the latter (page 11, figs. 2, 4). Scoresby compares the finest specimens of these to “white hairs cut into lengths not exceeding a quarter of an inch.”

2. Pyramidal, either triangular or hexagonal (figs. 5, 6). They are exceedingly small, being only one-thirtieth of an inch in hight.

3. Lamellar, consisting of thin and flat plates, some of them stelliform, having six points radiating from a center (fig. 11), and some hexagonal (page 21, fig. 1). Both these species are in infinite abundance, and of all sizes, from the smallest speck to one-third of an inch in diameter.

These three leading forms are endlessly combined, and give rise to innumerable varieties, from the simplest to the most complex. Pyramids are mounted on prisms, at one or both ends (page 11, figs. 7, 8); prisms are united in one star-like figure, like spokes of a wheel (fig. 10), and both are joined with plates in all conceivable forms of beauty and diversity. The specimens shown throughout our series of engravings illustrate these. The plates themselves are complex, showing within their outer boundaries white lines, which divide them into triangles, stars, hexagons, and other regular figures. Some plates are transparent, others opaque (page 21, fig. 13).

Part 2

When the prisms are combined with plates, it is generally in the same plane, but sometimes the former are set perpendicularly to the surfaces of the latter (page 29, figs. 18, 19, 20, 21). These singular figures resemble a wheel with its axle. Scoresby says that on one occasion, snow of this kind fell upon the deck of his ship to the depth of three or four inches!

In some instances the central plate has little prisms or spines projecting from it like hairs, on one or both sides, at an angle of sixty degrees. Sometimes, instead of a plate, the central part is a little rough mass like a hailstone, bristling with spines, somewhat resembling a chestnut-bur.

Much attention has been given to the meteorological conditions of the atmosphere during the fall of snow, to ascertain in what circumstances the different varieties of crystals are produced. Nothing very definite, however, is discoverable in this respect. The general facts are thus summed up by Mr. Scoresby: “When the temperature of the air is within a degree or two of the freezing point, and much snow falls, it frequently consists of large, irregular flakes, such as are common in Britain. Sometimes it exhibits small granular, or large rough, white concretions; at others it consists of white spiculæ, or flakes composed of coarse spiculæ, or rude, stellated crystals formed of visible grains. But in severe frosts, though the sky appears perfectly clear, lamellar flakes of snow of the most regular and beautiful forms are always seen floating in the air and sparkling in the sunbeams; and the snow which falls in general is of the most elegant texture and appearance.”

Of the hidden causes which originate these beautiful productions, nothing whatever is known. Some have imagined that they are to be found in the forms of the primal atoms of water, which are assumed to be triangles or hexagons, and which, therefore, uniting by their similar sides or edges, must give rise to crystals of regular forms. Others find the solution in magnetic or electrical affinities, which are supposed to require the particles to unite by some law of polar attraction. But even if these theories were demonstrated, they would explain nothing. Why the particles must unite in these particular methods, or what is the nature of attraction itself, no man knows. It is sufficient to say, with the learned and devout navigator who has done most to make us acquainted with these beautiful objects, “Some of the general varieties in the figures of the crystals may be referred to the temperature of the air; but the particular and endless modifications of similar classes of crystals can only be referred to the will and pleasure of the great First Cause, whose works, even the most minute and evanescent, and in regions the most remote from human observation, are altogether admirable.”

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