Why does snow fall in flakes? This question which puzzles so many people unfamiliar with the process of crystallization, is answered in the American Press in this way: “Snow falls to the earth in flakes because it is water solidified in starlike crystals, each snowflake being usually made up of several crystals, which are excessively light on account of the large quantity of air among the frozen particles. The snow crystals arise from the slow passage of the water vapor of clouds, when the temperature falls below freezing-point, into the solid condition, the fairy-like transformation taking place by the tiny independent particles of water grouping themselves with the utmost mathematical regularity around different centers. Each crystal of snow, as of anything else, is, therefore, a more or less perfect geometrical solid. The most complete snow crystals are formed in a clear atmosphere, where there is nothing to retard the gradual process of crystallization or molecule construction. Rain, on the other hand being a liquid, falls in drops.”