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210
The Fairy-Land of Science
·
Arabella B. Buckley
77
But
our
rain-drop
undergoes
other
changes
more
strange
than
these.
Till
now
we
have
been
imagining
it
to
travel
only
where
the
temperature
is
moderate
enough
for
it
to
remain
in
a
liquid
state
as
water.
But
suppose
that
when
it
is
drawn
up
into
the
air
it
meets
with
such
a
cold
blast
as
to
bring
it
to
the
freezing
point.
If
it
falls
into
this
blast
when
it
is
already
a
drop,
then
it
will
freeze
into
a
hailstone,
and
often
on
a
hot
summer's
day
we
may
have
a
severe
hailstorm,
because
the
rain-drops
have
crossed
a
bitterly
cold
wind
as
they
were
falling,
and
have
been
frozen
into
round
drops
of
ice.
But
if
the
water-vapour
reaches
the
freezing
air
while
it
is
still
an
invisible
gas,
and
before
it
has
been
drawn
into
a
drop,
then
its
history
is
very
different.
The
ordinary
force
of
cohesion
has
then
no
power
over
the
particles
to
make
them
into
watery
globes,
but
its
place
is
taken
by
the
fairy
process
of
"crystallization,"
and
they
are
formed
into
beautiful
white
flakes,
to
fall
in
a
snow-shower.
I
want
you
to
picture
this
process
to
yourselves,
for
if
once
you
can
take
an
interest
in
the
wonderful
power
of
nature
to
build
up
crystals,
you
will
be
astonished
how
often
you
will
meet
with
instances
of
it,
and
what
pleasure
it
will
add
to
your
life.
The
particles
of
nearly
all
substances,
when
left
free
and
not
hurried,
can
build
themselves
into
crystal
forms.
If
you
melt
salt
in
water
and
then
let
all
the
water
evaporate
slowly,
you
will
get
salt-crystals;
--
beautiful
cubes
of
transparent
salt
all
built
on
the
same
pattern.
The
same
is
true
of
sugar;
and
if
you
will
look
at
the
spikes
of
an
ordinary
stick
of
sugar-candy,
such
as
I
have
here,
you
will
see
the
kind
of
crystals
which
sugar
forms.
You
may
even
pick
out
such
shapes
as
these
from
the
common
crystallized
brown
sugar
in
the
sugar
basin,
or
see
them
with
a
magnifying
glass
on
a
lump
of
white
sugar.
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