March. He found that the distance of the sun's farthest limb from the nearest limb of the comet's nucleus, was four degrees, six minutes, fifteen seconds. At Conception, in South America, Captain Ray saw the comet on the twenty-seventh of February, east of the sun, distant about one-sixth of his diameter. The comet was seen at Pernambuco, Brazil, and in Van Dieman's Land, on the first of March. On the second, it was seen in great brilliancy at St. Thomas, and by various navigators in the equatorial regions. On the evening of the third, it was noticed at Key West, and excited much attention. On the fourth, it was seen in the latitude of New York by a few, and, on the evening of the fifth, it was noticed very generally.

From this date, until about the close of the month, it presented a most magnificent spectacle every clear evening, in the absence of the moon. As seen near the equator, the tail had a darkish line from its head through the center to the end. It was occasionally brilliant enough to throw a strong light upon the sea. The greatest length of tail, as seen there, was about the fifth of March, sixty-nine degrees as measured with the sextant, and it was observed to have considerable curvature. One observer described it as an elongated birch-rod, slightly curved, and having a breadth of one degree. At the Cape of Good Hope, March third, it was described as a double tail, about twentyfive degrees in length, the two streamers making with each other an angle of about a quarter of a degree, and proceeding from the head in perfectly straight lines. In the United States, the greatest length of tail observed was about fifty degrees. Professor Tuttle gives it, as seen through the Cambridge telescope, at one hundred and eighty millions of miles. The curvature of the tail upward, though very noticeable, scarcely exceeded two degrees. The first observation of the nucleus, with the exception of the noonday observations, is believed to have been made at the Cape of Good Hope, on the third of March,

In

after which it was observed regularly until its disappearance. At Trevandrun, in India, it was observed from the sixth; at Cambridge, Mass., it was observed on the ninth, and at numerous places on the eleventh. The first European observation of the nucleus was made on the seventeenth, at Rome and Naples.

The comet nowhere continued visible many days in succession. It was seldom seen in Europe after the first of April. The last observation at Naples was on the seventh. On the fifteenth, at Berlin, Professor Encke thought he caught a faint glimpse of the comet, but it could not be found again on the subsequent evening. At Washington, D. C., the comet was observed on the morning of March sixth. Mr. Maury says concerning it, that his attention was called to a paragraph in the newspapers of that date, Monday, stating that a comet was visible near the sun at mid-day with the naked eye! The sky was clear; but not being able to discover anything with the unas sisted eye, recourse was had to a telescope, though with no better result. About sunset in the evening, the examination was renewed, but still to no purpose. The last faint streak of day gilded the west, beautiful and delicate fleeces of cloud curtained the bed of the sun, the upper sky was studded with stars, and all hopes of seeing the comet that evening had van ished. Soon after the time for retiring, however, the comet was observed in the west, a phenomenon sublime and beautiful. The needle was greatly agitated; and a strongly marked pencil of light was streaming up from the path of the sun in an oblique direction to the southward and eastward; its edges were parallel. Stars could be seen twinkling through it, and no doubt was at first entertained, that this was the tail of the comet. Direction was given to search the eastern sky with the telescope in the morning, from early dawn and before, till sunrise; but nothing strange or uncommon was noticed. Tuesday was a beautiful day. The sun was clear, gilding, as it sunk below the hills,

through the luminous train. The visible portion of the tail attained its greatest length early in March, remained nearly stationary for some time, and during the first week in April suddenly disappeared, from increased distance, without any great diminution of length. The tail was turned nearly toward the earth on the night of February twenty-seventh, in such a direction, that had it reached the earth's orbit, it would have passed fifteen millions of miles south of us.

In regard to the extraordinary brilliancy of this comet, on the twenty-eighth of February, it was the opinion of Professor Loomis and no one's opinion could have greater authority or weight than his, that this was due to the comet's proximity to the sun. The day before, it had almost grazed the sun's disc. The heat it received, according to the computations of Sir John Herschel, must have been forty-seven thousand times that received by the earth from a vertical sun! The rays of the sun united in the focus of a lens thirty-two inches in diameter, and six feet eight inches focal length, have melted carnelian, agate and rock crystal. The heat to which the comet was subjected must have exceeded by twenty-five times that in the focus of such a lens. Such a temperature would have converted into vapor almost every substance on the earth's surface; and if anything retained the solid form, it would be in a state of intense ignition. The comet on the twenty-eighth of February was red hot, and, for some days after its perihelion, it retained a peculiar fiery appearance. In the equatorial regions, the tail is described as resembling a stream of fire from a fur

nace.

Such are some of the principal facts concerning this most wonderful comet of modern times, according to the investigations made by Loomis, also by Bond, Walker, Mitchell, Joslin, Hitchcock, and others, and which is significantly and deservedly called "the Great Comet."

In 1847, another remarkable comet, visible to the naked eye, made its appear

In

ance in the constellation Andromeda. the early part of February, it shone as a star of the fourth magnitude, with a tail extending about four degrees from the nucleus. The distance of the comet from the sun's surface, on the evening of March thirtieth, was only about three and a half millions of miles. The cometic nebulosity was about sixty-five thousand miles in diameter, and that of the more condensed central part, eight thousand miles. The length of tail was far less than that of the comet of 1843. Of this comet, a full page plate illustrates this article, showing, in a peculiar manner, the supernal splendor characterizing this mysterious order of the heavenly bodies.

The comet of 1853 was clearly visible to the naked eye, and had a well defined nucleus and tail. On investigation, astronomers failed to identify this comet with any previous one. Its brilliant nucleus and long train made it very conspicuous, indeed, one of the largest and most beautiful on record. The actual diameter of the bright nucleus was eight thousand miles, or about equal to that of the earth. Its nearest distance to the earth at any one time was sixty-eight millions of miles.

In September, 1858, Donati's celebrated comet made its appearance, and was for weeks a wonder in the skies, at which the whole nation gazed with deep and intense interest. The great astronomers, Loomis, Peirce, George P. Bond, William C. Bond, Tuttle, Norton, Hubbard, Safford, and Gould, made learned observations of the celestial visitor. brilliant, the tail prodigious. A star of the first magnitude might have rivaled the illumination of this comet, but nothing less was worthy a comparison. The tail had a curve like a scimitar; but its end was shadowy, faint, tremulous, and uncertain. The view from twilight until deep dark, was magnificent. On the twentieth of October, the first of a series of extraordinary phenomena manifested itself in the region contiguous to the nucleus. A crescent-shaped outline, obscure

The nucleus was very

and very narrow, was interspersed, like a screen, between the nucleus and the sun; within this, instead of a softly-blended nebulous light, indicative of an undisturbed condition of equilibrium, the fiery mass was in a state of apparent commotion, as though upheaved by the action of violent internal forces. On the twentythird, two dark outlines were traced more than half way round the nucleus, and on the next evening still another. Other envelopes were subsequently formed, their motion of projection from the nucleus being evident from night to night. The rapidity of their formation, and the enormous extent to which they were ultimately expanded, constituted a remarkable feature, difficult of explanation. The comet

TELESCOPIC VIEW OF THE COMET.

was nearest to the sun-fifty-five millions of miles,-September thirtieth; nearest to the earth-fifty-two millions of miles, -October twelfth. Its tail was fifty-one millions of miles in length.

So sudden was the apparition of the splendid comet of 1861, that though observations made at Harvard college observatory, June twenty-ninth, failed to detect it, it was, on the succeeding evening, the most conspicuous object in the western sky. On

the second of July, after twilight, the head, to the naked eye, appeared much brighter than a star of the first magnitude,-about the same in brightness as the great comet of 1858. The aspect of the tail was that of a narrow, straight ray, projected to a distance of one hundred and six degrees from the nucleus, being easily distinguishable quite up to the borders of the milky way. The boundaries, for the most part, were well defined, and easily traced among the stars. Further observations on the tail made it evident that a diffuse, dim light, with very uncertain outlines, apparently composed of hazy filaments, swept off in a strong curve towards the stars in the tail of Ursa Major. This was evidently a broad, curved tail, intersected on its curved side at the distance of a few degrees from the nucleus or head, by the long straight ray, which, at the first glance, from its greatly superior brightness, seemed alone to constitute the tail. The whole issue of nebulous matter from the nucleus far into the tail was curiously grooved and striated. On the second of July, portions of three luminous envelopes were visible. They rapidly faded, or were lost in the surrounding haze, and their places were filled by new ones. The investigations of Messrs. Safford, Hall, and Tuttle, show the diameter of the head of this comet to have been variously estimated at from one hundred and fifty to three or four hundred miles. On the second of July, the breadth of the head of the nucleus was one hundred and fiftysix thousand miles, and the length of the tail about fifteen millions of miles.