Chapter I: Front Matter

Oh come to the window, dear brother, and see
What a change has been made in the night;
The snow is all over the big cedar tree,
And the ground, too, is covered with white.
_James Taylor._

WATER WONDERS EVERY
CHILD SHOULD KNOW

LITTLE STUDIES OF DEW,
FROST, SNOW, ICE AND RAIN

BY
JEAN M. THOMPSON

ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
BY WILSON A. BENTLEY

NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1907, by
Doubleday, Page & Company

All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign
languages, including the Scandinavian

TO G. W. R.
I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK, AS AN EXPRESSION OF APPRECIATION AND ESTEEM

NOTE

I am greatly indebted to Mr. Wilson A. Bentley for valuable assistance in the arrangement of this book, and particularly for permission to reproduce the microphotographs. Jean M. Thompson.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. When the Dew Falls 5
II. The Coming of the Hoar Frost 37
III. Etchings by Jack Frost 65
IV. Mysteries and Beauties of the Snow 97
V. Ice and Its Formation 169
VI. The Beneficent Rain 205

ILLUSTRATIONS

A Winter Scene _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
3. Grass blade with dew deposit 5
4. Showing how sharp-pointed grasses collect and retain the
dewdrops 5
5. Grass blade holding two drops 5
6. Dewdrop on grass blade 5
7. Spider's web entire 9
8. Detail section of spider's web dew-laden 9
9. A dew-laden strawberry leaf 13
10. Dewdrop caught on vegetable hairs 13
11. The sleeping caterpillar was a good subject 13
12. The surface of a leaf dew-covered 13
13. Dew caught and held upon the down of plant stem 14
14. Dew upon the down of a leaf 14
17. Hoar-frost deposit upon a stick 18
18. Dainty lace-like formation of hoar frost 18
19. Winter tabular hoar frost resembling a group of butterflies 18
20. Like a piece of bleached coral 22
21. Tabular hoar frost 22
22. Tree form tabular hoar frost which grew in zero weather 22
23. A winter type of hoar frost 26
24. Columnar hoar frost upon a decaying log 26
25. Striking arrangement of hoar-frost crystals 26
26. Showing hoar-frost elaboration 33
27. Hoar-frost deposit upon grass blades 33
28. Moss-like hoar frost deposited upon surface of pond 37
29. Columnar hoar frost scattered over brook ice 37
30. An odd hoar-frost formation 41
31. Detail tabular hoar frost 41
32. Detail tabular hoar-frost crystals 41
33. Cup-form hoar frost 41
34_a_. Columnar hoar-frost crystals 45
34_b_. Columnar hoar frost 45
35. Linear-type window-pane frost 46
36. Showing initials crudely scratched upon glass 46
37. An exquisite lace pattern in frost 50
38. A beautiful example of two distinct types 54
39. Fern-like scrolls, delicate background 54
40. A perfect fern leaf 58
41. Raised fern-like arrangement 58
42. Showing in detail granular frost 58
43. Graceful feathers with curling ends 62
44. Strikingly beautiful example 62
45. One of Jack Frost's masterpieces 69
46. A mass of feathers scattered upon glass 69
47. Sometimes Jack Frost sketches oak leaves 73
48. Detail of frost crystals largely magnified 73
49. Twigs and leaves 77
50. Branch-like arrangement of twigs 77
51. Moss-like arrangement of frost 78
52. Twin freaks 78
53. An unusual design 82
54. A powdering of small flowers 82
55. A maple-leaf etching 86
56. Find the frost spider 86
57. Two distinct types of window-pane frost 90
58. Curious design suggesting a spider web 90
59. One of the choicest designs of window frost 97
60. A design of frost work from "the land of the pointed firs" 97
61. Blizzard type 101
62. Exquisite jewelled type 101
63. Solid, big-storm type 105
64. A very symmetrical crystal 105
65. High-altitude crystal 105
66. Freak crystal formed by broken sections uniting 105
68. Air inclusions unusually clear 109
69. Low-altitude type 109
70. Local-storm crystal 110
71. Freak trigonal crystal 110
72. Elaborately etched 110
73. The cuff-button crystals 114
74. Low-cloud crystal 114
75. A beautifully marked high-altitude crystal 114
76. Crystal coated with granular snow 118
77. Having flower-like petals 118
78. Very intricate design 122
79. Showing a perfect star 122
80. Frigid-altitude crystal 126
81. High- and low-altitude type combined 126
82. Having beautifully etched center 126
83. A diamond pendant 126
84. Clean-cut prism-like crystal from high altitude 133
85. Suggesting a Masonic emblem 133
86. The Egyptian crystal 133
87. Unusually symmetrical and clearly defined 137
88. Singular detail 137
89. Trigonal crystal 137
90. Young germ crystals 141
91. Granular pellet crystals 141
92. Columnar six-sided type 141
93. Sleet, sharp and stinging 142
94. Old snow, re-crystallised 146
95. Freak crystal 146
96. Snow rollers 150
97. Scattered like huge muffs over large tracts of land 150
98. A freak crystal 154
99. Two broken crystals united 154
100. A society emblem 154
101. A twin crystal 154
102. A feathery type 161
103. Leaf-like terminations 161
104. Delicately etched centre 165
105. High-altitude crystal 165
106. Solid type 169
107. Star type 169
108. Very unusual centre formation 169
109. Mosaic like 169
110. Feathery type 173
111. Clear prism-like branches 173
112. Solid type 173
113. Low-altitude crystal 173
114. Having notably elaborate centre 174
115. Very elaborate design 174
116. The arrow crystal 174
117. Low-altitude type 174
118. High-altitude crystal 178
119. A daintily etched centre design 178
120. Branchy trigonal crystal 182
121. An uncommon type 182
122. One of the most elaborate crystals shown 186
123. A rare design because of its open petal-like formation 186
124. Very frigid altitude crystal having remarkably etched
centre 186
125. A snow crystal covered with granular deposit of frost 186
126. Local-storm type 190
127. Cold high altitude 190
128. Germ or birth of ice crystal 197
129. Second stage in which crimps begin to appear 197
130. Third stage of development 197
131. Fourth stage flower-like shape beginning to show 201
132. Ice flower completed 201
133. Flower-like shape fully formed 201
134. Ice flower beginning to show shadings 201
135. Ice crystals growing downward into the brook 205
136. Group of ice crystals 205
137. Lance-like form seen pushing out from banks of brooks 205
138. Second stage of lance-like ice crystals 206
139. Lance-like form completed 206
140_a_. Freak ice crystals 206
140_b_. Group of ice crystals containing germs 206
141_a_. Coral-like branch showing the "feather type" in detail 210
141_b_. Window-pane ice 210
142. Beautiful type of window-ice growing like delicate seaweed 214
143. Window-pane ice 214
144. Another type of window-pane ice 214
145. An example of columnar ice 218
146. Columnar ice 218
147. Columnar ice, section shown in detail 218
148. Very great thunder-storm drops 222
149. Rain from cirro-stratus high clouds 222
150. Rain from low nimbus clouds 222
151. Thunder- and hail-storm type 226
152. From a great rain storm which lasted 15 hours 226
153. Thunder cloud 230
154. Nimbus or low stratus clouds 230

WHEN THE DEW FALLS