Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 104 December 1901 to May 1902 . GROUP OF SNOW CRYSTALS 114 HARPERS MONTHLY snow crystals of two blizzards is muchless marked than the difference betweenthe crystals of a blizzard and of a smalllocal storm. Careful examination of thesnow crystals which are reproduced in theillustrations to this article shows how ex-ceedingly complex are the interior detailsof many of them. Each of these complexi-ties means something; each indicates adate, or a place, or a condition in theevolution of the crystal. Now, curiously enough, these interiordetails, with
Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 104 December 1901 to May 1902 . GROUP OF SNOW CRYSTALS 114 HARPERS MONTHLY snow crystals of two blizzards is muchless marked than the difference betweenthe crystals of a blizzard and of a smalllocal storm. Careful examination of thesnow crystals which are reproduced in theillustrations to this article shows how ex-ceedingly complex are the interior detailsof many of them. Each of these complexi-ties means something; each indicates adate, or a place, or a condition in theevolution of the crystal. Now, curiously enough, these interiordetails, with their rods, slats, bars, fila-ments, and flowery geometrical shapes,which add so much to the charm ofthe crystalline form, are found to con-sist largely of minute inclusions of air. The crystals did not grow, up in theclouds, by a slow, continuous process, butrather by a succession of minute, numer-ous, and hidden accretions, alternatingwith periods of stagnation. The minutewater molecules that furnished the mate-rial for the new growths must often haveswarmed on to the growing crystals fromboth sides, simultaneously
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