. The Columbian magazine : or, monthly miscellany. r to be severally complete in themselves, but generally of dlfrfcrent configurations. If we lookat a number of flakes together,we shall then perceive an asto-nishing variety of these configu-rations ; many of them so admira-bly beautiful, so exquisitely con-trived, as to mock all attempts toexplain or delineate them. Awarmth in the atmosphere, theaction of the suns rays, or theblowing of the wind, Vv^ill oftenblunt the points or break off thefiner parts of snow, so as to givean appearance of irregularity orimperfection : but such appear-ances
. The Columbian magazine : or, monthly miscellany. r to be severally complete in themselves, but generally of dlfrfcrent configurations. If we lookat a number of flakes together,we shall then perceive an asto-nishing variety of these configu-rations ; many of them so admira-bly beautiful, so exquisitely con-trived, as to mock all attempts toexplain or delineate them. Awarmth in the atmosphere, theaction of the suns rays, or theblowing of the wind, Vv^ill oftenblunt the points or break off thefiner parts of snow, so as to givean appearance of irregularity orimperfection : but such appear-ances alway? proceed from oneor other of these .adventitiouscauses, and not from any defect inthe natural configuration of theparts,-^Nature is ever steady purpose. llie best time for observingsnow, is immediately .after it hasfallen, when the ajr is dry, coldand calm. It was in this state ofthe weather, at an early periodof the late winter, when the spe-cimens annexed (for which weare indebted to tlie ingenuity ofnir. Thomas Bedwell) were d€-. FeiaiUr, No. VIII. Igl Uncated, by means of a prettygood glass : the snow was at thattime of a fine and remarkablybright kind. Fig. 2 and 3 re-present, in , asthey appeared to the nakedeye, two of those particles ofwhich snow-flakes arc formed :the ten larger figures express si-milar pans, as they appeared whenviewed throucrh a mag-nifier : butthe configurations of others werevaried almost to infinity ; andyet it was plain that all thosevarieties belonged to as manyclasses, in which no difference wasperceivable in their respective con-figurations. Mmy of those par-ticles were of exqjisite beauty,far surpassing these on the plate ;but they were so delicately fa-shioned, so complicated, and thespicula so inimitably interwoven,as to bafH^ every attempt to tracethem witn the pencil. In the course of the same win-ter similar observations v/ere oc- caiionally made in Philadelphia,on different fails of snow. Ap-pearances wer
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