So soon as a stratum of air that contains water-particles, meets with a colder stratum, these airy particles of water immediately flow together to form fog. But fog, as has been said, is nothing but a cloud. He who has travelled in mountainous countries, has often noticed this. From the valley it often appears that the top of a high mountain is wrapped in clouds; and his curiosity may be excited to ascend the mountain in order to examine these clouds. But when he arrives there, he sees nothing whatever either before or behind him but fog, which most assuredly he has often seen before without so much trouble. The ignorant person who believes that a cloud is something else than fog, and who fancies that the clouds which he saw from below have disappeared during his ascent, leaving but a mist behind, will be no little amazed when he has arrived at the foot of the mountain again, to see the cloud above as before, and to perceive that he actually walked among the clouds. Hence it is understood now, that the particles of water in the air form fog, or, which is the same, clouds, so soon as they come into a colder stratum. But the cloud is not rain as yet; the change into rain will depend upon circumstances that may be easily guessed. If a warmer and dryer stratum passes over the one containing the newly formed clouds, then this warmer stratum will absorb the water-particles of the other. The moist air fares like the wet clothes we spoke of; the warm dry air absorbs its particles of water. But if a colder stratum of air approaches the stratum containing clouds, then the water-particles of the latter are condensed; the cloud becomes small drops of water; these drops are too heavy to be supported in the air, and they fall down as _rain_. During its descent, the drop of rain is steadily increased by the water-particles of the air through which it passes. Thus it happens, that rain often arrives at the earth in the form of large drops of water, while when yet in the air and beginning to fall, it consisted of tiny drops. It is well known that the rain-drops on the roof are smaller than those that fall on the street. The difference is so great, that on the roof of the royal castle in Berlin, Prussia, there falls four and a half inches less rain during the year than on the square before the building. Our readers may now imagine, without difficulty, how in a similar way, snow is formed. If a stratum of air saturated with moisture meets a very cold one, the fog begins to freeze, and becomes specks of snow. They, too, increase while falling, and on arriving upon the earth they are large flakes.