SNIPE-FLY. 279 SNOW. SNIPE-FLY. Any one of the small, slender ' fiies of the family Leptidfp. They have long Ieg3 and slender bodies, and are predatoiy, destroying other insects. Generally they have smoky wings and velvety bodies. They are sluggish in habits. The larvae are found in water, decaying wood, earth, moss, dry sand, and in the burrows of wood-boring beetles. More than 50 species occur in tile United States. SNOILSKY, snoil'ske, Iv.rl Johan Gustat, I ount ( 1S<41-1903 ) . A Swedish poet, born at Stock- holm and educated at the University of Up.sala. He entered the diplomatic service in 18G.5, and held various secretarial posts xuitil 1S70, when he abandoned diplomacy for literature. His works include: Orchidecr (1SG2), Dikfrr (1806) : 4th ed. 1883), Nya dikter (1881), and Dilter; 3e Samliiigen (1883). Dikter: .'le Samliiigen (1887). He also published in 187G a transla- tion of Goethe's ballads. SNOOK (from Dutch stiock, pike, jack). A fish: (1) A barracuda (q.v.) of Australian and South African waters {Thi/rsifes nituii). impor- tant a< a food-fish. (2) The robalo (q.v.). SNORRI STURLUSON, snor're stoor'loo- son (1179-1241). An Icelandic historian and statesman, remembered as the author of the HeimskrinriJa or annals of early Norwegian Kings, and of the Yonn/jei- or Prose Ed<l4i. Snorri, youngest .son of a local chieftain, was reared in the train of the great chief .Jon Lopts- son. Snorri gained distinction as a poet and lawyer, and in 121.5 was made head of the legisla- tive assembly and the highest court, a position which he held at various times. King Haakon invited him to Norway in 1218. and later he negotiated a peace between Norway and Iceland, rather to the dissatisfaction of both parties. He returned to Iceland, where he used his power to his own advantage, and in 1230 political and domestic intrigue compelled his flight to Nor- way. He returned in 1240 and was, by King Haakon's orders, killed by Gissiir, Snorri's son- in-law. at his home in Revkjaholt. September 22, 1241. The Prose Edd'n. finished in 1222, comprises the mythological Gylfaciinning, the 8k<iidskcipar»iul, a sort of Ars Poeticu, and the Buttdtal, a commentary in 102 strophes on poems in honor of the author's Norwegian patroiis. King Haakon and his tutor Skuli. The l^ngas extend from the mythological kings to 1177, and are based on chronicles, tradition, and legend, all digested and fused with much critical and literary ability on principles ex- pounded in his preface. The most important part of the Eeimskringla, the Olaf Sajra, he also elaborated separately. Snorri's Works have been edited by Peringskjiild (3 vols., Stockholm, lfi97) : Schcining and .Saint Thorlacius (3 vols., Copenhagen, 1777-83) ; Unger (Christiania, 18(>8) ; and best by Finnur .Jonson (Copenhagen 1803 et seq.). There are translations into Danish by Grundtvig (Copenhagen. 1818-22) ; Norwegian by Hall (Christiania, 1838-39) : Swedish by Ricbert (Stockholm. 181fi-29) and by H. Hilde- brand (Oreboro. 18fi0-71) : and German by Wach- ter . (incomplete. Leipzig. 1835-36) : and into English by Laing (London. 1844 and 1889), also by M. Morris (ib.. 1805). SNOUCK HURGRONJE, snuk hur-crdn'ye, Christiaax (1857 — ). A distinguished Dutch Orientalist, born in Oosterhout, North Brabant, and educated at Leyden. where he studied Arabic under Dc Geoje. and at Strassburg under Ntildeke. He taught Jlohamraedan law at Leyden in the civil service college for the Dutch Indian service, and in 1884 traveled in Arabia. Disguised as a native doctor of the civil Jaw, he spent almost a year in jMecca. In 1888 he was sent on a govern- mental scientific expedition in the Dutch Indies, and soon afterwards settled in .Java, where he assumed an oflicial post as adviser to the Dutch Governor-General of Batavia. Among his works are: Het Mekkaaitsche Feest (1880, a doctoral thesis) ; Mekka (1888-80), with an atlas; Bilder aus ilekka (1880) ; De heteekenis van den Islam roor ::ijne belijders in Oost-Indie (1883); Der Mahdi (1885) ; "De Islam," in De Gids (188G) ; and />(■ AljfJirrs (1804). SNOUT BEETLE, A weevil. See Weevil. SNOW (AS. snaic, Goth, snaiws. OHG. siieo, Ger. .S'c/uicp, .snow; connected with Lat. nix. Gk. (ace.) vi<f>a, nipha, Olr. snechtu, OChureh Slav. S'lhcgii, Lith. snegas, Lett, snegs, Av. snii, snow, Skt. snih, to be sticky or oily). Minute crys- tals of ice formed in the atmosjjhere when the aqueous vapor is condensed at temperatures below freezing. These crystals usually eom- l)ine into groups that are sometimes large and flocculent, but more frequently are small and ar- ranged xith great regularity. The elementary ice crystals or spiculfe are prisms of six sides whose ends are perpendicular to their lengths. When the length of the crystal is very small as compared with its diameter these needles become thin flat plates. The early meteorological ob- servers have recorded the figures of snow crystals, as observed under a magnifying glass, but later observers have secured photographs of the crys- tals as seen through the compound microscope. The longer rays that constitute the arms of the six-rayed stars are generally hollow tubes; they are evidently built up by additions to the edge of an original crystal. "hen a mass of snow is melted to water the latter occupies much less volume than the origi- nal snow. It is customary to say that in a gen- eral way a depth of ten inches of snow is equiva- lent to a rainfall of one inch of water, but it is never safe to use any specific ratio for the con- version of snowfall into rainfall, but in all cases the snow should be freshly caught and melted and the exact amount of equivalent water prop- .erly measured. The white color of snow results from the fact that the snow crystals are so mi- nute that each cell of the retina receives a gen- eral impression produced by the combination of different wave lengths reflected from innumerable minute facets. An analogous case is the white light produced by reflection from pounded glass or any foaming liquid or from a surface covered with hoar frost. Red snow, and more rarely oth- er colors, such as green, blue, or black snow, are produced by the action of innumeral)le fungi, known as the Micrococcus iiivaUs. .Snow rarely falls at sea level south of the ])arallel of 30 de- grees north latitude, and on the Pacific coast of North America it occurs at sea level only north of 47 degrees north latitude. The melting of snow on the mountains adds a great deal to the drainage from the watershed into the river and the flooding of the rivers carries fertility into all regions.
