THE GLACIAL PHENOMENON. 113 ing as a miracle. From time to time, however, nature puts on some new aspect, so striking and peculiar, as to elicit some regard from the most inatentive observer. And for the last ten days, we have been living in the midst of one of these peculiar manifestations, which must have interested every one, and may afford some valuable religious hints. God has cast fourth his ice like morsels ; and those morsels have clothed nature with a richer and more attractive robe, than we can hope to witness more than once in a life of three score years and ten. It should not pass without some notice. Allow me, then, in the first place, to give a brief description of this phenonenon, as it met my own eye; for from what I can learn, I should not think it strange, if some of the most brilliant features of this exhibition were scarcely seen, even by some who lived in the midst of it. On Wednesday, the 17th of January, a moderate and very cold snow storm closed a little before mid-day, leaving the surface of the earth and of vegetables at so low a temperature, as to absorb heat rapidly from objects placed upon them. But during the following night, the themometer rose nearly to the freezing point, and a moderate rain commenced, which continued about two days, almost without interruption. It was accompanied with but little wind, and the rain drops, most of the time, were almost as fine as mist; so that the whole amount of rain scarcely exceeded an inch and a quarter in depth. The thermome 114 THE SEA OF GLASS. ter did not rise during the storm quite to the freezing point; and towards the close, it sunk several degrees below it. The result was, that all the rain froze to the surface on which it fell, and formed a coat of pure transparent ice, over the snow, and all other objects exposed to it, from a quarter of an inch to more than an inch in thickness. On the snow this crust was strong enough to sustain a man; and almost as smooth as the frozen surface of a lake or pond ;-looking as if the billows of the ocean had been suddenly congealed before they could subside entirely. Still more striking, however, was the effect upon the vegetable world, now stripped of its foliage. The leafless branches and twigs of every tree, of every shrub, and even of every spire of grass, or other annual plant, that rose above the surface of the snow, were encased in this thick and beautiful hyaline coat, as transparent as the purest water. Along these branches, in many instances, the ice swelled into tubercular masses, and almost uniformly terminated in a knob; so as to resemble strings of gigantic glass beads. Now just imagine the effect, as the sun from time to time on Saturday, broke through the clouds upon these countless natural gems, prepared to refract and reflect his light with more than his original brightness. I thought I had before seen splendid exhibitions of this sort, in the glittering dew drops of summer and the frost work of winter. But the THE DIAMOND PENDANTS. 115 present scene surpassed all my former experience incomparably; and even the figments of my imagination. If the twigs of every tree and shrub and spire had been literally covered with diamonds of the purest water and largest known size, say an inch in diameter, they would not, I am sure, have poured upon the eye in the sun light a more dazzling splendor. But it may give those not familiar with the diamond, a better idea of the scene, to compare the icy pendants with those of cut glass, which are sometimes hung in great profusion around large chandeliers, in many of our churches and public halls. It is no exaggeration to say, that each tree, nay, each shrub, of moderate size, exhibited as numerous crystalline drops, and as brilliant an aspect, as I have ever seen around the largest chandelier. Think, then, how much superior must have been the aspect of a large tree, with a graceful shape and wide spreading branches. Nay, think of a whole forest with the rays of the sun darting through, and lighting up ten thousand radiant points of a diamond hue and intense brilliancy. These could be seen as many as forty or fifty rods, and beyond that distance, the forests, as far as the eye could reach, had the aspect and the richness of embossed silver. When I perceived what a splendid robe nature had put on, I went forth to pay my homage in her magnificent temple. As I wandered over "the sea of glass," through fields, and forests, over hill and dale, new forms of beauty 116 THE INTEREST INCREASES. met me at every step. Amazement was soon succeeded by admiration, and admiration gave place to intense delight; nor could I help repeating over the poet's enthusiastic eulogy: "Oh Nature! how in every charm supreme, To sing thy glories with devotion due." I could not believe, that any more splendid developments of this phenomenon awaited me. But on Saturday night the thermometer sunk to zero, and on Sunday morning the sun arose in a cloudless sky, and the icy shoots and pendants, more thoroughly crystalized by the intense cold, formed ten thousand points of overwhelming brightness on every side. Nor were all the sparkling brilliants, as on the day before, of colorless light. But here and there, I began to notice the prismatic colors; now exhibiting a gem of most splendid sapphire blue; next one of amethystine purple; next one of intense topaz yellow; then a sea green beryl, changing by a slight change of posture, into a rich emerald green; and then one of deep hyacinth red. As the sun approached the meridian, the number and splendor of these colored gems increased; so that on a single tree hundreds of them might be seen, and sometimes so large was their size and intense their color, that at the distance of fifty rods, they seemed equal to Sirius, nay, to the morning star! and of hues the most delicate and rich that can be conceived of, exactly imitating, so far as I could judge, the natural gems; and not partaking at all of those less delicate and gaudy tints, by which a practiced eye can distinguish genuine from supposititious precious stones. And by moving the eye a few inches, we could see these different colors pass into one another, and thus witness the rich intermediate shades. I have seen many splendid groups of precious stones, wrought and unwrought, in the large collections of our land; and until I witnessed this scene, they seemed of great beauty. But it is now literally true, that they appear to me comparatively dull and insignficant. In short, it seemed as if I was gazing upon a landscape which had before existed only in a poet's imagination. It is what he would call a fairy land: but a more Christian designation would be, a celestial land. On Monday it was cloudy, and the phenomena presented no new aspect. On Tuesday, there was a storm of fine rain and snow, and the beautiful transparency of the icy coat was changed into the aspect of ground glass. This gave to the trees a new and more delicate appearance. They resembled enchased work, formed of pure unburnished silver; and had the sun shone upon them, they must have been intensely beautiful. I now supposed that the most brilliant part of this scene,--its golden period,--had passed: and that the silver period of Tuesday, |