Hoar Frost

Abstract

A COMMUNICATION in NATURE of January 8 (p. 216), in regard to frost-formations, leads me to send a word from Maine. I have seen frost-work so like the description there given, that it would answer very well for an account of frosts in this climate. These frost-formations occur when the wind is chilly and blowing steadily, without the compass veering, for hours. I have compared these deposits to the most delicate designs of Oriental lace-work. At one time I witnessed an accretion on a wall, where the feathery forms were from two to four inches in length, with the points towards the wind. I think this is because each added particle adhered to the very tip of the previous one. Certainly no pen-description can do justice to the delicate beauty when the sun suddenly broke through the clouds and shone upon this forest of frost-ferns.