Abstract
IF the Duke of Argyll will look again at the second of the three letters in NATURE, vol. xxi. p. 302, he will see that, although my explanation of the ice-filaments agrees on the whole with those contained in the other two, it differs in one important respect, and is not liable to the chief objection which he alleges against the theory. I suppose the crystallisation of the water to go on pari passu with its exudation at the surface of the rotten wood. If the wood be saturated with water the water will begin to exude by expansion as soon as its temperature falls below 4° C., that is, before it becomes frozen. Now the temperature at the surface will fall more rapidly by radiation than that within by conduction. Consequently the water will for the first time be subjected to a freezing temperature when it gets beyond the surface. There it will be solidified, and by the coating of crystals formed, help to protect the water within from freezing. It may possibly be that the slight relief from pressure which the water would experience on escaping from constraint when it arrives at the free surface would predispose it to immediate solidification.
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