Descartes was the first to give detailed descriptions and remarkably accurate visual representations of snowflake morphology solely through the use of the unaided eye. His studies included drawings and observations of rare snow crystal formations, including twelve-sided snowflakes, stellar crystals, and those consisting of hexagonal columns with plated ends, commonly known as capped columns. Descartes was also intrigued by the precise hexagonal symmetry of snowflakes. He proposed that they resulted from an initial, uniform packing of irregular crystals.