THE COMING OF THE HOAR FROST
"Rustily creak the crickets;
Jack Frost came down last night--
He came on the wings of a star beam,
Cool and sparkling and bright;
He sought in the grass for the crickets
With delicate icy spear,
So sharp and so fine and so fatal,
And he stabbed them far and near.
Pray what have you done to the flowers?
Where hides the wood aster?
She vanished as snow wreathes dissolve in the sun
The moment you touched her."
--Thaxter.
When autumn has reached the zenith of perfection, when the milkweeds and
thistles which grow thick in the hedges have cast their gossamer,
fairy-like seeds to the winds, and the goldenrod which flaunted its
yellow banners so brightly through those last long, perfect days of
dying autumn, has at last begun to fade, the first warning which we have
of the approach of the frost is all at once seen in certain mysterious
changes of colour which have taken place in the foliage of the trees.
Then we know that upon that last still night, when the stars snapped and
sparkled so brilliantly, and the air felt unusually keen and crisp, that
the Hoar-frost Spirit must have been abroad, and in passing, touched all
the trees and plants very lightly with his magic wand. Out in the garden
the sturdy sunflowers droop their seed-filled crowns a trifle, while the
hollyhocks seem to stand less primly and firmly, and lean together as
though for support. They have felt the blighting touch of that magic
wand. He touched also the tips of the maple leaves upon the hillside,
and left upon some of them just a little dab of his crimson brushwork;
they form a touch of brilliant colour against the darkly massed pines
and hemlocks in the background. But shortly they will flame forth upon
every hillside, one vast torch, lighted to do honour to the passing of
autumn; and all the work of the Frost Spirit.
[Illustration: 30. An odd hoar-frost formation]
[Illustration: 31. Detailed tabular hoar frost--grew slowly]
[Illustration: 32. Detailed tabular hoar-frost crystals]
[Illustration: 33. Cup form hoar frost]
The little sour fox-grapes which grow in the hedge-rows, are now piquant
in flavour, and have acquired something which they lacked before, and
are pleasant to the taste since the hoar frost's visit to them. The
bitter-sweet berries which grow close beside them, tangled and twisted
with the gray, fluffed-out clematis plumes, have burst their
orange-coloured sheaths, and gleam more vividly than before. And the
great green chestnut burs are bursting, just a trifle; they need one
more, slightly sharper touch from the hoar frost, and then the plump,
brown, satin-skinned nuts will come tumbling out of their burs to the
ground. The eager squirrels have already begun to collect their winter
supplies. They are early at work, even before the magical display
created by the hoar frost has been touched by the sun. They mean to get
ahead of the children in their nut gathering, if possible.
If you too, would rise with the squirrels, and go forth into the open
fields and woods, you will be amply repaid for the small effort which it
cost you, for the display which the delicate hoar frost makes upon a
clear morning in early autumn, when first touched by the sunrise, is
really fantastic and wonderfully beautiful.
If you happen to be in the country, direct your steps across the pasture
lands, where the short thick grass is powdered heavily with the hoar
frost, and do not fail to pause at the old, gray rail fence, leading
into the cornfield, to study the fine effects, the magic work which the
Frost Spirit has left there during the night. The withered brown shocks
of corn, standing in suggestive, witch-like attitudes, scattered over
the fields, each lance-like rustling blade tipped with a steely,
glittering coat of frost; while between the leaning stacks gleam great
golden pumpkins, as yet unharvested, each golden sphere gleaming through
a bluish-white deposit of hoar frost, or frozen dew.
[Illustration: 34a. Columnar hoar-frost crystals]
[Illustration: 34b. Columnar hoar frost (tabular)]
Unquestionably, James Whitcomb Riley had in mind a similar scene when he
was inspired to pen the homely lines so often quoted:
"When the frost is on the punkin,
And the fodder's in the shock."
The beauties and peculiarities of the hoar-frost crystals are a
distinctly separate study in themselves, as they do not belong, nor are
they classified with the heavier frosts of late and mid-winter, such as
we find in the extreme cold weather deposited upon our window-panes and
elsewhere.
The hoar frost is in reality the dew particles or molecules of water in
the air, which, when the temperature falls below 32°, freezes and
collects, and thus forms a deposit of hoar frost upon nearly all
surfaces which it encounters.
Still another variety of hoar frost is that which forms mysteriously
under some covering; occasionally we find it deposited upon a bit of
wood which has lain under the snow; it forms upon the underside of the
wood, or that part resting upon the ground, and is caused by the
moisture of the earth, which collects, and which the temperature
converts into crystals of hoar frost.
Special and interesting examples of hoar-frost formations are given in
the photographic illustrations, which, being taken with a camera having
a microscopic attachment are, for the most part, largely magnified. The
detail and formation of the hoar-frost crystal is most delicate, and
well worthy of study, and the curious manner in which some of them are
found, also the many different shapes which they assume, clearly shows
that each formation is possessed of certain individuality of structural
form peculiar to its environments, and the surrounding objects to which
it may attach itself.
[Illustration: 35. Linear window-pane frost. A common type]
[Illustration: 36. Showing initials crudely scratched upon glass, which
frost has elaborated]
An especially interesting type of crystal is that which grows in queer
needle-like layers, somewhat suggestive of tiny stalactite growths; this
variety we frequently discover in gravelly or peaty soil, while it
sometimes raises and supports upon its points large sections of earth
and stones.
These needle-like columnar formations, which are excellently portrayed
in the illustrations, are often found from two to six inches in height,
and are formed from the moisture which rises from the warm soil and
freezes. These columnar crystals do not form in this manner in the
extremely cold weather, or after the ground has become solidly frozen to
a certain depth; therefore they may be classed among the hoar-frost
formations of early autumn.
As shown in detail in the photographs, the formation of each section of
this type of hoar-frost crystal appears as a prism-like columnar growth,
the base of the prism being hexagonal in shape, and closely resembling
an unset jewel.
Through the still, cool nights in autumn the Hoar-frost Fairy works
steadily, covering vegetation with glittering frost-work, touching all
unsightly places, decaying woods, old gray fence-rails lightly in
passing, and upon the following morning, if you are fortunately stirring
before the sun ruins the best work of the hoar frost, you will discover
many wonderful works of art. Sometimes it will be a miniature,
scintillating forest of needle-like crystals attaching itself to some
old rail. Again a perfectly marvellous collection which you may find
deposited upon a board; tiny tabular ice crystals of hoar frost closely
resembling a flight of white butterflies or moths powdered over its flat
surface. We were fortunately able to secure one of this type; and with
the aid of a small pocket microscope, you may be able to discover this
pleasing variety, as shown in our photograph. The same variety of hoar
frost was again encountered, where the delicate crystals had formed and
grouped themselves upon a stick or straw; this is wonderfully suggestive
of a group of butterflies resting upon a flower-stalk, as we frequently
observe them in mid-summer, where flights of the yellow wayside
butterflies assemble upon a mullein-stalk in precisely the same fashion.
[Illustration: 37. An exquisite lace pattern in frost]
The showy illustration resembling in formation a branch of bleached
coral, is another interesting example of the hoar frost's eccentric
development, and was found clinging to a decaying beam, under an old
building.
The beautiful feathery spray, somewhat resembling a miniature fir tree,
was taken from the branch of a tree, about which it had formed, and is
made up of countless, lace-like, filmy ice prisms, of infinite delicacy.
Much is lost in the scintillating iridescence of these frail hoar-frost
crystals when seen merely in the photographs, for they frequently show
rare colour effects when seen in the open.
That the hoar frost sometimes takes strange freaks is shown in the
exquisitely beautiful deposits occasionally found upon the edges of a
piece of broken ice. Sometimes you will discover it upon the thin, new
ice which forms upon small streams in the early autumn, and in gullies
beside the road. This ice is short-lived, and readily breaks at the
slightest touch, with the crackling sound of broken glass. A section of
this thin ice is shown, about the ragged edge of which the hoar frost
has arranged itself in fantastic fashion. The dark waters of the brook
may be seen through the opening.
[Illustration: 38. A beautiful example of two distinct types.]
[Illustration: 39. Fern-like scrolls, delicate background.]
Hoar frost which gathers upon the grass blades, unlike the deposit of
the dew, does not form noticeably upon the tips of the blades; on the
contrary, the hoar frost gathers in an apparently greater and heavier
degree the nearer to the earth it approaches. Flat-leaved, low-growing
plants are usually well covered with hoar-frost crystals, while about
the edges of certain leaves a heavy decoration of film-like crystals is
sometimes seen.
Frequently upon a pond of frozen water we come across a queer moss-like
fungus deposit scattered at intervals over the surface of the ice. This
is still another type of hoar-frost formation. Still another is the
columnar frost crystal, which is formed of clusters of needles, and
these loose, needle-like formations we frequently find scattered over
the surface of thin brook ice.
During your rambles in the autumn, after the arrival of the hoar frost,
it would prove a pastime as well as an instructive nature study, to
search out and locate the many different varieties of hoar frost. Be
sure to take a small pocket microscope or reading lens with you. Search
diligently in unexpected places, beneath blocks of wood, about decaying
logs and old tree stumps, for in all sorts of out of the way places you
will encounter them. Under the edge of a stone, imbedded even in the
snow, and scattered over the surface of frozen pond and brook. The Frost
Spirit seeks all sorts of strange nooks and crannies in which to deposit
its fascinating mushroom growths.
Nature has in store for us many strange, agreeable surprises. Among them
there is much to be discovered and learned about these delicate
fantastic creations deposited by the Hoar-frost Spirit.
[Illustration: 40. A perfect fern leaf]
[Illustration: 41. Raised fern-like arrangement]
[Illustration: 42. Showing in detail granular frost drawing away from
true frost crystals]
ETCHINGS BY JACK FROST
[Illustration: 43. Graceful feathers with curling ends]
[Illustration: 44. Strikingly beautiful example. Evergreen twigs
shooting out into clear glass]