would have been eighteen millions of miles away from its surface. Its appearance was strikingly ornamental to the evening sky, and every eye waited and watched, intently, to gaze upon the celestial novelty, as it grew into distinctness with the declining day. The elements of the orbit of this comet were accurately computed by Professors Bowditch, Farrar and Fisher.

The comet of 1843 is regarded as, perhaps, the most marvelous of the present age, having been observed in the day-time even before it was visible at night,-passing very near the sun,-exhibiting an enormous length of tail,—and arousing an interest in the public mind as universal and deep as it was unprecedented. It startled the world by its sudden apparition in the spring, in the western heavens, like a streak of aurora, streaming from the region of the sun, below the constellation of Orion. It was at first mistaken, by multitudes, for the zodiacal light; but its aspects and movements soon proved it to be a comet of the very largest class. There were, too, some persons who, without regarding it, like many of the then numerous sect called Millerites, as foretokening the speedy destruction of the world, still could not gaze at it untroubled by a certain nameless feeling of doubt and fear.

From the graphic narrative of a European traveling at that date in the wilds of America, it appears that the Indians around him viewed the comet of 1843 as the precursor of pestilence and famine. One of his companions, Tamanua, a young Wapisiana, broke the silence with which the whole party for some time stared at the starry train of the ball of fire, with the exclamation, "This is the Spirit of the Stars, the dreadful Capishi-famine and pestilence await us!" The others immediately burst into a torrent of vociferation, lamenting the appearance of the dreadful Capishi, and raising, with violent gesticulations, their arms towards the comet. This comet was visible in Bologna, Italy, at noon, two diameters of the sun's disc east of the sun, while passing

its perihelion, being then only ninety-six thousand miles distant from that luminary, and its speed three hundred and sixty six miles per second; so that, in twelve minutes, it must have passed over a space equal to the distance between the earth and the moon. When its distance from the sun allowed it to be visible after sunset, it presented an appearance of extraordinary magnificence.

But the appearance of this strange body, as observed at different points, by various scientific observers, has been made a portion of the permanent scientific history of our country, by Professor Loomis, of Yale college, to whose learned investigations in this department of human knowledge, more than one generation is largely indebted. In his admirable paper on this magnificent comet, he states that it was seen in New England as early as half-past seven in the morning, and continued till after three in the afternoon, when the sky became considerably obscured by clouds and haziness. The appearance, at first, was that of a luminous globular body with a short train-the whole taken together being found by measurement about one degree in length. The head of the comet, as observed by the naked eye, appeared circular; its light, at that time, equal to that of the moon at midnight in a clear sky; and its apparent size about one-eighth the area of the full moon. Some observers compared it to a small cloud strongly illuminated by the The train was of a paler light, gradually diverging from the nucleus, and melting away into the brilliant sky. An observer at Woodstock, Vt., viewed the comet through a common three-feet telescope, and found that it presented a distinct and most beautiful appearance, exhibiting a very white and bright nucleus, and showing a tail which divided near the nucleus into two separate branches.

sun.

At Portland, Me., Captain Clark measured the distance of the nucleus from the sun, the only measurement, with one exception, known to have been made in any part of the globe before the third of

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 curyature. 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,

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 unassisted 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 vanished. 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,

a narrow streak of cloud, seen through the tree-tops beyond the Potomac. The tail had appeared of great length for the first time the evening before; and the observers expected, therefore, to find a much greater length to it in the evening following. It was a moment of intense interest when the first stars began to appear. The last rays of the sun still glittered in the horizon; and at this moment, a well defined pencil of hairy light was seen pointing towards the sun. Soon after six o'clock it grew more distinct, and then gradually faded away.

Professor Loomis states that the most complete series of observations on this comet of 1843, in this country, were made by Messrs. Walker and Kendall of Philadelphia, where the comet was followed until April tenth. A great many astron

perihelion was prodigious. This was such as, if continued, would have carried it round the sun in two hours and a half; in fact, it did go more than half round the sun in this time. In one day-that is, from twelve hours before, to twelve hours. after perihelion passage,-it made two hundred and ninety-one degrees of anomaly; in other words, it made more than three-quarters of its circuit round the sun.

The head of this comet was exceedingly small in comparison with its tail. When first discovered, many were unwilling to believe it a comet, because it had no head. The head was probably nowhere seen by the naked eye after the first days of March. At the close of March, the head was so faint as to render observations somewhat difficult even with a good telescope, while the tail might still be followed by the

omers, however, computed the comet's orbit, and obtained most extraordinary results. The comet receded from the sun almost in a straight line, so that it required careful observations to determine in which direction the comet passed round the sun, and some at first obtained a direct orbit, when it should have been retrograde. The perihelion distance—that is, the least distance from the sun, was extremely small, very little exceeding the sun's radius. Some obtained a smaller quantity than this, but such a supposition seems to involve an impossibility. It is nevertheless certain, that the comet almost grazed the sun; perhaps some portion of its nebulosity may have come into direct collision with it!

The velocity with which the comet whirled round the sun at the instant of

naked eye about thirty degrees. Bessel remarked that this comet seemed to have exhausted its head in the manufacture of its tail. It is not, however, to be hence inferred, that the tail was really brighter than the head, only more conspicuous from its greater size. A large object, though faint, is much more noticeable than a small one of intenser light.

The nearest approach of the comet's head to the earth was about eighty millions of miles. The absolute diameter of the nebulosity surrounding the head was about thirty-six thousand miles. The length of the tail was prodigious; on the twenty-eighth of February, it was thirtyfive millions of miles, and its greatest visible length was one hundred and eight millions, namely, on the twenty-first of March. Stars were easily distinguishable

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

ance in the constellation Andromeda. In 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