ICE AND ITS FORMATION

75. A beautifully marked high altitude crystal

Whittier brings before us the whole picture so charmingly in his beautiful “Snow-Bound”:

“Zigzag, wavering to and fro,Crossed and re-crossed the winged snow;And ere the early bed-time cameThe white drift piled the window pane.”

“Zigzag, wavering to and fro,

Crossed and re-crossed the winged snow;

And ere the early bed-time came

The white drift piled the window pane.”

In these severe winter snow-storms which our New England poets illustrate so aptly, we become familiar with the snow in all its unsullied purity, and if we are New England born, we never forget the white, frozen charms of those rigid winters, no matter where we stray, or how torrid the sunshine of our abiding place in later years.

Many there are among us who are familiar with and love that winter idyl, the wintry landscape—a blended symphony of colouring; warm russet browns, gray, and rich velvety greens. Against the dense greens of the Hemlock and Spruce, the sturdy mottled Sycamore branches, with their little pendent russet balls clinging tenaciously to their topmost twigs, stand forth in bold relief, while graceful white birches, slender and ghost-like, mingle and blend with the sombre gray trunks of Chestnut and Birch, which toss and sway their denuded branches high in the frosty air.

A cold gray sky—then stealing down appear the first silent fluttering snowflakes, floating gently earthward. A brooding silence settles over all, unbroken save perhaps by a straggling flight of crows winging their way heavily to safe shelter among the distant forest of dark pines. Timidly at first descend the first advance heralds of the great storm, the tiny snowflakes; then suddenly ever faster and faster they assemble, until the dreary, leaden skies and the landscape picture is confused and merged together in a gray curtain; shut out by the wildly eddying, swirling snow.

76. Crystal coated with granular snow

77. Having flower-like petals

“Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,Arrives the snow, and driving o’er the fieldsSeems nowhere to alight, the whitened airHides hills and woods, the river, and the heavensAnd veils the farmhouse at the garden’s end.”

“Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,

Arrives the snow, and driving o’er the fields

Seems nowhere to alight, the whitened air

Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heavens

And veils the farmhouse at the garden’s end.”

Every living thing instinctively seeks safe sanctuary against the advancing fury of the storm; and desolation broods o’er all the land. The hoarse winds rise and rage and croon their wailing symphonies about the picturesque old gray-gabled farmhouses, and the inmates settle themselves contentedly within doors where all is made safe and snug. And thus the mighty blizzard rages for days. But at last the grateful sunshine deigns to burst forth once again, and like magic the scene of desolation has changed:

“Come, see the North Wind’s masonryOut of an unseen quarry evermoreFurnished with tile, the fierce artificerCurves the white bastions with projected roofRound every windward stake, or tree or door.

“Come, see the North Wind’s masonry

Out of an unseen quarry evermore

Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer

Curves the white bastions with projected roof

Round every windward stake, or tree or door.

“Leaves when the sun appears, astonished ArtTo mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,The frolic Architecture of the snow.”

“Leaves when the sun appears, astonished Art

To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,

Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,

The frolic Architecture of the snow.”

For the trees which tossed their naked gnarled branches in the pitiless wind before the storm have been rejuvenated and clothed anew in soft white velvet draperies, and the old gray fence rails gleam and scintillate, cushioned with snow. It would almost seem as though nature had endeavoured to carry out some special decorative scheme when she draped the evergreens, for see how beautiful are the Southern Pines with their brush-like tufts of needles, each one resembling a snowy pompon of feathers. The graceful, drooping Hackmatack tree looks as though the children had decorated it with strings of popcorn, the tiny cones at intervals each touched with a wisp of white snow carrying out the effect. While the Balsams wave their serrated branches, each tiny needle outlined in white, and the stately Hemlocks bend low their glossy green boughs, flattened and draped heavily with snow. In the hedges the thick underbrush appears for all the world like a field of ripening cotton, each group of twigs supporting a whorl of cotton-like snow. No true New Englander repines or deplores the desolation of such a scene; to him it is not a gloomy spectacle, but rather festive.

78. Very intricate design

79. Showing a perfect star. Low altitude type

Should you wander alone far afield, perhaps across some hilly pasture where above the soft snow hummocks last year’s drying seed-pods and grasses gleam frost-touched and sparkling in the sunshine, into the edge of the “spruce bush,” if you are a lover of nature in all her moods, aside from the glittering beauties which meet the eye upon every hand, you will be impressed by a wonderful calmness, a brooding silence, which came with the advent of the snow. This silence is so impressive that even the velvety pad of some little furry creature in the underbrush is startling, and the tapping of the brave little woodpecker up aloft sounds stridently keen and obtrusive. It is as though the storm in passing had left as a benediction, this great peace which broods over all.

In tropical countries snow is never seen, for it does not reach the earth, excepting that which falls upon lofty mountain tops. On the summits of very high mountains the snow occurs intermittently whether in frigid or tropical zones. Snow is a wonderfully important factor in the laws which govern irrigation, for as it melts upon the tops of mountains it adds greatly to the watershed or drainage, flowing into all streams and carrying fertility to all regions.

80. Frigid altitude crystal

81. High and low altitude combined

82. Having beautifully etched centre

83. A diamond pendant

Although certain types of snow crystals may be detected with the naked eye, most of them are so tiny that their structural form cannot be determined without the aid of a microscope. If you chance to be out of doors during a snowfall, and happen to wear a dark coat of wool material, observe closely the flakes which chance to alight upon your sleeve and perhaps you may be able to recognise a true crystal.

When, as we sometimes remark, “Mother Goose is shaking out her feather bed,” and the white flakes come drifting down in large loose feathery flakes, then we may more readily discover a crystal without the aid of a glass. It is then that we find the lace-like, open, branchy and star-like shapes. These usually form during a local storm, or from a storm preceded by a warm wave. But the hard pellet-like crystals which sting our window-panes in falling, are from a very high altitude, and have been great travellers.

The study of the snow and its many mysterious phases is full of surprise and charm; and its various demonstrations fascinating and almost unexplainable. Among the many strange manifestations encountered in the kingdom of snow, perhaps there is nothing more mysterious than the so-called “snow rollers.” They are rather a recent discovery among snow students, and not frequently encountered. Two good examples of these curious rollers are given in photograph illustrations. The photographer came upon them quite unexpectedly and thought at first that the children had been amusing themselves by rolling huge snowballs. But upon investigation he discovered that these mysterious bundles of snow were quite hollow, like a large muff, and scattered at intervals over a large snow-covered field. These mysterious snow rollers form only after a light fluffy snowfall, followed by a rise in the temperature, from a degree or so above zero up to 36° or 38° above, accompanied by a peculiar stray gusty wind.

84. Clean cut prism-like crystal from high altitude

85. Suggesting a Masonic emblem. Trigonal crystal

86. The Egyptian crystal, because of its characteristic tracings

The rollers form most frequently in the foothill regions, wherein these gusty winds pour over and around the hilltops, and down across the valleys. After the temperature has reached 36° to 38° above and the snow upon the surface of the ground has been slightly dampened and rendered sticky, the capricious wind gusts scoop up here and there small particles of the moist snow, and overturn them upon that in front, forming a ridge or hollow arch, which is the commencement of the snow roller. Then the wind gets back of it, and proceeds to roll it forward, until, as it gradually rolls along it accumulates more snow, and increases in size, until it becomes too heavy a plaything for the sport of the winds, and then it stops.

These snow rollers grow in size both in diameter and in length, as they roll along, and attain various sizes from a few inches in diameter up to two feet in diameter. Some of the rolls are overturned by the boisterous winds in such a manner as to form a hollow snow arch, and hence some of the rolls are hollow even when matured. Hundreds of these rather mysterious snow formations occur to the acre of land, and they form both on a dead level and upon inclines.

That snow crystal study is extremely fascinating is well shown, for Mr. Bentley declares that although he works out of doors for hours at a time, when often his hands are well-nigh frost-bitten by the intense cold, in below zero weather, yet he is himself almost unconscious of discomfort or real suffering from the cold, so keenly interested and intent is he at the time, in securing some new and wonderful type of crystal to add to his already large collection of snow jewels.

87. Unusually symmetrical and clearly defined

88. Singular detail; dotted centre design

89. Trigonal crystal, very cold storm type

To make a collection of the snow crystals it is necessary, first of all, to make a receiving board. This is just a flat board covered with black velvet or wool material. The operator then places the board in a favourable position for catching the flakes as they descend, and then closely watches the receiving board as flake after flake alights upon the black surface. His eye will become sufficiently trained by experience at last to detect a fairly perfect specimen. If such a crystal alights—and sometimes it is weary waiting, for in a storm lasting an entire day, frequently but two or three perfect crystals deign to alight upon the receiving board—but when the perfect crystal arrives, then with infinite skill, and just the right touch, which must be acquired by practice, the little crystal is gently lifted upon a tiny, sharp-pointed stick, transferred to the slide and photographed as quickly as possible, before it has had an opportunity to dissolve, and become again a mere drop of uninteresting moisture. The camera used is photo-micrographic, or a camera with a microscopic attachment.

Regarding the formation of the snow into crystalline forms, we are told that the molecules and atoms of all substances when allowed freedom of movement, form themselves into many definite shapes and designs called crystals. Minerals, gold, silver, iron, sulphur, when melted and permitted to cool, gradually show this crystallising power. And by dissolving saltpetre in water and allowing the solution to slowly evaporate, large crystals will form, more or less symmetrical, as the salt is converted into vapour. Alum readily crystallises in the same way. The diamond is crystallised carbon, and all precious stones are examples of mineral crystals. It would be quite an interesting and novel experiment to photograph some of these crystals formed of minerals such as saltpetre, alum and others, and to compare them with the structural formation of snow crystals.

90. Note the young germ crystals invading this crystal

91. Granular pellet crystals from a warm cloud

92. Columnar six-sided type. Singular effect of miniature photographs enclosed

Water itself as a liquid is to all appearances formless; when sufficiently cooled, however, the molecules are brought within play of the crystallising force, and thus arrange themselves in more or less attractive crystals. A most interesting point, well worthy of consideration, is that it is extremely improbable that anyone has as yet found, perhaps never will find, the one preëminently beautiful and symmetrical snow crystal which nature has probably fashioned in her most artistic mood—her masterpiece. The study of this unique branch of nature work is as yet in its infancy. It possesses all the charm of novelty, and many who take it up will find in it a source of much pleasure as well as instruction.

It would seem that there is really no limit to the number of distinct forms and types among the snow crystals. It will be noted that many of the designs are most rare and fanciful, and really worthy of developing and reproducing in many ways. The open, lace-like types might well be copied by a jeweller or worker in precious stones, for nothing could be more exquisite in a pendant or brooch than one of these snow-crystal designs carried out in diamonds. Others suggest rare patterns for lace work and embroideries, while others are wonderfully effective pieces of mosaic work, or suggestive studies for stained window-glass. Many of the patterns might well serve for wall-paper or print material designs. And as a drawing lesson, the simpler forms might be copied and with their history and detail, afford a pleasant and profitable study.

Ideas along these lines it seems to me are limitless and well worth cultivating.

Again, to quote Whittier, how charmingly has he portrayed, in the following lines, the strangely beautiful and mysterious formation of the ethereal snow crystal:

93. Sleet, sharp and stinging

“So all night long the storm roared on;The morning broke without the sun;In tiny spherule traced with linesOf Nature’s geometric signs,In starry flake, and pellicle,All day the hoary meteors fell.”

“So all night long the storm roared on;

The morning broke without the sun;

In tiny spherule traced with lines

Of Nature’s geometric signs,

In starry flake, and pellicle,

All day the hoary meteors fell.”

That all may know and understand the life history and formation of the crystals shown in the photographs, I will give a brief description of each which you will doubtless find both interesting and instructive. It will be seen that each crystal possesses some individual characteristic differing entirely from its predecessor, and each, in its way, fascinating and beautiful.

No. 61. A very showy crystal, of local-storm type, also a blizzard crystal formed in low, warm altitude.

No. 62. This exquisite crystal might well suggest a jewelled brooch or pendant of rare workmanship. It began its formation in a very high altitude, where the solid, hexagonal centre was formed, started to descend in plain hexagonal form, but was caught upwards by the rushing clouds, tossed about awhile, and then allowed to pass into a lower, warmer altitude where its elaborated branches were added.

No. 63. A high, frigid-altitude crystal, notable for its delicately traced centre design, and the six curious, apparently raised formations in the plainer spaces.

No. 64. Remarkable for its six beautiful prism-like rays, and central wheel-like structure.

No. 65. An exquisitely designed centre, with air inclusions strongly marked.

No. 66. This crystal has been formed of two sections, and must have encountered another broken crystal in its travels, with which it united, and from this its crystalline growth formed.

No. 68. An oddity. The air inclusions are very strongly marked and bring into sharp relief its rare central design.

No. 69. A local-storm type. These crystals are always loose and feathery in construction.

94. Old snow, re-crystallized

95. Freak crystal. Developed the sides only which fell downwards

No. 70was started in a very high, cold altitude, and completed in warmer clouds.

No. 71. A rare trigonal form, a sort of “freak” crystal.

No. 72has delicate tracings.

No. 73. A very remarkable group of snow crystals, which always attract wonder and incredulity, as they appear upon close inspection to represent quite a pretty set of collar buttons or studs. These snow crystals are the product of a very great storm, and they travelled a long distance before reaching the earth. They were generated in a very high, frigid altitude. When these singular snow crystals descended they fell in parachute fashion, the larger section downward.

No. 74. Low-altitude type.

No. 75. This crystal is remarkable for the peculiar delicately etched tracings of its centre, and the rather curious designs in each scallop. A rarity.

No. 76. A crystal powdered with frost-work; has granular edges.

No. 77. A flower type, having few air inclusions, as it grew rapidly and continuously.

No. 78. A very beautiful jewelled design of the diamond pendant type. A local storm crystal.

No. 79. Also a local-storm crystal, generated in warm, low clouds.

No. 80. A perfect hexagonal type having rarely beautiful air inclusions.

No. 81. A lace-like crystal.

No. 82. Note the very beautiful centre elaboration of this crystal, and the plain, apparently unfinished branches.

No. 83. An extremely showy crystal; also a blizzard type.

No. 84. A singularly beautiful type, having unique centre elaborations, and perfect, glass-like prismatic branches.

No. 85. Here we have what appears at first glance to be some secret emblem or Masonic order sent from cloud-land. Of rare trigonal, solid form.

96. Snow rollers. Very rare

97. Scattered like huge muffs over large tracts of land they lie

No. 86. An Egyptian mystery. Study the markings of this strange crystal closely; its delicately etched centre formation, and the strange characters which form its border. May it not well be some secret cypher message from the skies? Who shall say? This crystal is an extremely cold weather type, as all solidly formed crystals are.

No. 87. The peculiarity of this crystal is the apparent correction made in its nuclear construction.

No. 88. A very delicate and beautiful type. Note the strange grouping of symmetrically arranged dots in its centre formation.

No. 89. Trigonal. A general-storm type.

No. 90. Upon the face of this crystal appear young germ crystals which have attached themselves to the crystal proper.

No. 91. Round, granular snow pellets, from cumulus clouds.

No. 92. Columnar snow crystals; a peculiarity noticeable in these ice-like prisms is that each one contains apparently, at first glance, a picture held in its depths.

No. 93. This is another distinct type of snow, the needle, or spicular form—sleety, which stings and cuts the face when driven by high winds.

No. 94. A piece of old snow re-crystallised.

No. 95. This crystal is remarkable in that it fell and grew heavier side downward, leaving its upper branches undeveloped.

Nos.96and97show the mysterious “snow rollers” scattered over the surface of a field, with a glimpse of the wintery landscape as a background.

Nos.98,99, and100are “freak” crystals, 100 showing singularly shaped tablets attached.

No. 101. A twin crystal.

No. 102. This crystal grew very rapidly and continuously; a warm cloud type.

No. 103. Two types combined.

No. 104. A rare design, with fluted prisms, central etchings notable.

98. A freak crystal

99. Two broken crystals united

100. A society emblem. High altitude

101. Twin crystal

No. 105. A remarkably fine specimen. A cold-weather type of crystal. Also has marked perfection in air inclusions.

No. 106. This crystal is another great traveller, a high-altitude type. Such crystals usually possess marked precision and finish in detail as they are long in forming.

No. 107. A star crystal.

No. 108. Notable for its very dark centre, and scroll-like detail.

No. 109. Plain, high altitude type.

No. 110. Local storm type.

No. 111. A prismatic beauty.

No. 112. A very frigid-altitude type.

No. 113. Contrasting, low-altitude type.

No. 114. This crystal possesses a remarkably intricate and noteworthy centre.

No. 115. Also has elaborate centre design.

No. 116. A remarkably beautiful, jewelled effect; intricate centre. This crystal is another mystery. It is of a high-altitude type, and is called “the arrow crystal” because of the six clearly defined arrows upon its surface. A crystal worthy of study.

No. 117. Remarkable feathery type. Low-altitude crystal.

No. 118. Notable for very dark centre, and invasion of germ crystals upon its surface.

No. 119shows a high-altitude type where the centre hexagonal portion is well perfected, but the branch-like rays show imperfections and incompleteness of structural formation.

No. 120is one of the most showy crystals in the collection. Of trigonal formation with fantastic prism-like branches; a high-altitude type.

No. 121is a strange crystal, something of a “freak,” whileNo. 122is a singularly beautiful type, notable for its very dark centre, and the unique and rather mysterious tracings which go to form its border. This crystal must have remained in a very high altitude for some time before descending as it shows finely finished detail.

102. A feathery type. Local storm

103. Leaf-like terminations

No. 123is a beautiful flower type. Usually the branches merge together but in this instance they remained open like flower petals.

No. 124. A high-altitude crystal covered with a deposit of granular snow.

No. 125. Very high-altitude type, having curious inner tracings.

No. 126. A beautiful symmetrical star design, with leaf-like terminating branches. A local-storm type.

No. 127. A great traveller from a cold high altitude.

104. Delicately etched centre

105. High altitude crystal. Rare and singularly perfect in construction

106. Solid type

107. A star type. Very high altitude

108. Very unusual centre formation

109. Mosaic like

“Down swept the chill wind from the mountain peakFrom the snow five thousand summers old;On open wold and hilltop bleak, it gathered all the cold—The little brook heard it and built a roof’Neath which he could house him, winter-proof.”

“Down swept the chill wind from the mountain peak

From the snow five thousand summers old;

On open wold and hilltop bleak, it gathered all the cold—

The little brook heard it and built a roof

’Neath which he could house him, winter-proof.”

When in mid-winter, pond, lake, and river are covered with a glittering icy coat of mail, when the rushing babble of the little brook sounds strangely muffled and restrained because of its icy fetters, then we know that all nature is once more in the stern, iron grasp of winter, which brings with its piercing icy breath, great discomfort, as well as charm and exhilaration to all.

For who has not at some time in their lives revelled in the wonderful, joyous pleasures of skating? The ice crystal-clear beneath our polished steel, as we glided bird-like, swiftly over the polished, mirror-like pond beneath us. What exhilaration and glow we found in the fascinating sport. But how seldom, if ever, did we give a thought to the wonderful formation, and the beauties of that crystal surface beneath our flying feet, or did we dream that every bit of that ice was cemented and joined together in exquisite mosaic-like patterns, formed by countless millions of tiny ice flowers, far too delicate and small to be seen by the naked eye. This wonderful process of ice formation goes on, as Lowell so charmingly writes:

“All night by the white stars’ frosty gleamsHe groined his arches and matched his beams;Slender and clear were his crystal sparsAs the lashes of light that trim the stars;Sometimes his tinkling waters sliptDown through a frost-leaved forest-crypt.”

“All night by the white stars’ frosty gleams

He groined his arches and matched his beams;

Slender and clear were his crystal spars

As the lashes of light that trim the stars;

Sometimes his tinkling waters slipt

Down through a frost-leaved forest-crypt.”

110. Feathery type

111. Clear prism-like branches

112. Solid type. Probably travelled a long distance

113. Low altitude crystal. Usually feathery and light in construction.

The conversion of liquid water through freezing into a solid crystalline state is certainly a most interesting process, as well as a mysterious one. There are many more difficulties to be encountered by crystal photographers in the study of ice formation, and its minute detail, than in that of either the snow or frost. Still many instructive and very interesting experiments have been made and facts obtained relating to the formation of the ice, and it has recently been possible to secure a valuable set of photographs which are wonderfully interesting, inasmuch as they serve to show the singular formation and development of ice crystal structure from start to finish.

Ice and water are so optically alike, that the formation of these ice crystals cannot be clearly detected without the aid of a microscope. These ethereal ice flowers are extremely frail and thin, less than one one-hundredth of an inch in thickness; and they vary from just a mere microscopic speck, to one-third of an inch or so in tabular diameter.

Generally every freezing body of water contains these beautiful ice crystals; myriads of tiny transparent ice flowers which assume distinct types and groups, more or less symmetrical. In order to watch the growth and development of these ice crystals which build up in such quantities on the surface of pond, river and brook, and which go, as a whole, to form solid ice, certain artificial conditions of light are necessary. These may be simply furnished by using a small mirror placed in a horizontal position beneath the surface of the water which is in process of freezing. Or, if one wishes to make an interesting study of the strange phenomena within doors, it may be quite possible to do so by simply placing water in a pail, and in the bottom of the pail, beneath the water, a mirror in a horizontal position. Of course the water should be kept in a cold room where it will freeze, or beneath an open window. The mirror affords the necessary white background, and in this manner ice in process of freezing may be plainly viewed from its first germ growth to the finished ice crystal.

114. Having notably elaborate centre

115. Very elaborate design

116. The arrow crystal. Six well defined arrows in the design

117. Low altitude type

The process by which each water molecule, obedient to the great laws which govern nature, draws together in countless numbers to form and build themselves into countless flower-like ice crystals, which go to form solid ice is a magical, fascinating process, well worth watching.

The types of ice crystals differ, however, upon still surfaces, to those which form upon running or disturbed water. Still, such a similarity exists in all ice crystal formation, and their habits of growth, that one may get a very clear idea of the process of their development by observing it in the simple manner above described.

Their different stages of growth is very clearly divided into five or six types of crystalline formation, and they pass from beginning to end, through the various stages of development as the nuclear, or smooth-edged crystal, the scalloped, the ray-like and the branching stages of growth; after which they lose their individuality by becoming solidified and merged into the solid ice form.

When the ice flowers or crystals first begin to appear, it is usually upon the surface of the water, and close to the sides of the pail. Frequently they push out in long, delicate, needle- or lance-like forms while upon the plain edges of these sharp lances, scallops and delicate serrations quickly follow. But the individual or flower type of crystals which grow and scatter themselves over the surface of the water, do not attach themselves to any object, but grow in a detached fashion, and are really the most interesting crystal for observation and study. These detached crystals following out the laws which govern also the frost and snow crystals from their first stage of development, form a simple, smooth-edged disc of very thin transparent ice, gradually merging into the same, hexagonal, flower-like pattern, which governs the frost and snow crystals, although during the first stages of their development they show no tendency to follow hexagonal outlines. The photographed illustrations showing this type of ice crystal, from its start to finish were most of them taken from indoor observation.

118. High altitude crystal with germs attached

119. A daintily etched centre design

Beginning with photographNo. 128, we have the germ or birth, showing the first stage which the ice crystal assumes in its formation. It is always seen as a round disc of very clear, thin ice.

No. 129illustrates the second stage of growth in which the tiny serrations or scallops are just beginning to shoot out and form about the germ or disc. Frequently they remain in this stage of development for some time without further change, but when it is zero weather they quickly increase in growth, and soon begin to show clearly defined scallops as shown in photographNo. 130.

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