290 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



waiting for clear weather again in hopes of being able to catch it on 

 the meridian. This would put its discovery on or before September 

 7th. It was seen on the 8th by Mr. Finlay, an assistant in the Royal 

 Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope ; and on the 12th it was ob- 

 served at Rio Janeiro, by Cruls, who telegraphed the news to Europe, 

 announcing it (erroneously) as the expected comet of 1812 on its return. 

 We have not yet sufficiently full accounts from the southern observa- 

 tories to know whether it was lost sight of at all after its discovery, 

 but we have the account of a most interesting and unprecedented ob- 

 servation made at the Cape Town Observatory, on the 17th. Mr. Gill, 

 the director of the observatory, writes : " The comet was followed by 

 two observers with separate instruments right up to the sun's limb, 

 where it suddenly disappeared at 4 h - 50 m - 58 s - local mean time." This 

 was about an hour and a half before its perihelion passage. 



A few hours previously it had been independently discovered by 

 Mr. Common in England, in the full blaze of sunlight, and clouds 

 alone prevented him from making the same observation as Mr. Gill. 



It is evident that the comet must have been most intensely brilliant 

 to be visible under such circumstances. When it passed on to the 

 sun's disk (it was between us and the sun at the time), it disappeared, 

 being either transparent, or else practically as bright as a portion of 

 the sun's own surface. If this comet had been in the place of the lit- 

 tle " Tewfik " which was seen close to the sun at the time of the Egyp- 

 tian eclipse last May, it would have been something to remember. 



On September 18th the comet had reached a greater distance from 

 the sun (about 3), and had become so conspicuous that it was simul- 

 taneously rediscovered by a multitude of observers in all parts of the 

 world, and accurate determinations of its position were made at sev- 

 eral observatories. On the next day every one had heard of it, and 

 people interested in astronomy thought and talked of nothing else. 



On the 19th and 20th the comet was still easily seen by the naked 

 eye. On the 21st it was visible only in places when the air was very 

 clear, and the sky darkly blue. On the 22d a curious observation of 

 it was made at Paris by M. Mallet, who, at the request of M. de Fon- 

 vielle, ascended for the purpose in a balloon provided by the latter, 

 thus getting above the clouds with which the city was thickly cov- 

 ered. Of course, it was not possible in this manner to make any pre- 

 cise determination of position, but the aeronaut obtained a fine view 

 of the celestial visitor. 



For a few days after this the comet does not appear to have been 

 observed until it had receded far enough from the sun to become visi- 

 ble before sunrise. Then, for a while, during the early days of Octo- 

 ber, it was a most magnificent object, with a head at first rivaling 

 Jupiter in brightness, and a tail which, though not of unusual dimen- 

 sions, never much exceeding 60,000,000 miles, was remarkably well 

 defined, dense, and luminous. It moved slowly toward the south and 



