ON COMETS. 93- 



pened several times, and in one case quite recently; for 

 the great comet of 1843 was seen at noonday quite close 

 to the sun both in Nova Scotia and at Madrid, and be- 

 fore sunset at the Cape of Good Hope.* Of course it 

 is only the brightest part, or the head of a comet that 

 can ever be so seen. The faint light of the tail has no 

 chance of contending against broad daylight. 



(4.) Before the invention of telescopes tlie appearance 

 of a comet was a rare occurrence, because only a small 

 proportion of them can ever be seen by tlie naked eye, 

 and of them again only a small portion are considerable 

 enough to attract much attention but since tliat dis- 

 covery it lias been ascertained that they are very numer- 

 ous liardly a year passes without one ; and very often 

 two, three, and in one year, 1846, no less than eight were 

 ohserved. Taking only two a year on an average as 

 visible if looked for in a telescope, and considering that 

 at least as many must occur in such situations that we 

 could not expect to see them in the 6000 years of re- 

 corded history there must have been between twenty and 

 thirty thousand comets, great and small. K great comet, 

 however, hardly occurs on an average oftener than once 

 in fifteen or twenty years, or even yet more rarely; 



* At Halifax, in the first mentioned colony, my informant saw a 

 n.amlier of persons natives of the place hale and sturdy men, 

 gcthercd in a group and gazing full on the sun, which, when he at- 

 tempted to do, dazzled and almost blinded him. He was ccnnpclled 

 to desist, and incpiire what they were looking at, and how they 

 could do so withiait Ijeing blinded. *' Llinded !" was the rej^ly 

 ''Loid bless you, it does not hurt us; what, can't you see it that 

 thing up by the sun?" 



