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