Congelation is crystallization, and all crystallization is electric, or magneto-electric. The snow-flakes differ in form and size according to the suddenness of the condensation, the amount of moisture condensed, the polarity of the strata through which they pass, and their consequent attraction and adhesion to each other. The connection of electricity with these formations of cirri has frequently been admitted, and it is perfectly obvious that the long fibrous bands, shooting from horizon to horizon, could not be formed by commingling of currents any more than the perfectly isolated, distinct, enlarging-outward cumulus hail-storm, could be so formed. Cirri form at the line of meeting, between the trade and the upper atmosphere, and in one or the other, or both, very much according to the season, and the suddenness with which storms are produced. These often _induce_ a layer of cirro-stratus or stratus at the lower line of the counter-trade, and in the surface-atmosphere, which precipitates; and this operation is clearly discernible, and very frequently, before gentle rains. Condensation in the whole body of the trade is usually in the form of turbidness or mistiness, a bank or incipient stratus, without cirri. It seems matter of astonishment that water should float so far condensed, in strata where the air is so much lighter, without being precipitated. But electric attraction and repulsion between the different strata and the vesicles, explain it. In mid-winter, the cirrus forms are prevalent and most distinct. After severe cold weather, when a storm approaches, the cirri form in long, narrow threads, parallel to each other, extending from about W. S. W. to E. N. E., gradually thickening and forming, or inducing, cirro-stratus and stratus, and dropping snow. This form is called the _linear_-cirrus. The tufted, and other fibrous forms, are seen in patches also, in great distinctness, during these mid-winter days, when the wind gets around to the southward, and the weather is pleasant. Such days are called "_weather-breeders_," and their _offspring_ the patches of cirrus, which are to extend and compose, or induce the storm, and indeed are an advance part of it, are then never absent. A clear, moderate day, in a normal winter, with wind from any southern point, however light, between the 1st of January and the middle of February, without these patches of cirrus, is very uncommon. Watch and see whether they tend to cirro-stratus, or whether the wind gets around to the N. W. at nightfall, and they disappear. If the former, a storm may be expected; if the latter, fair weather.