356 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE, [VoL VI. 
irregular masses of cloud. These continued to disintegrate, and the 
comet literally broke in two. 
On the 23rd (which answers to the 22nd astronomical time, if the 
observation was taken in the morning) a magnetic disturbance began 
which reached its acme on the 25th, while another raged violently on 
November Ist. The end of October was the most disturbed period of 
the autumn, and, the influence of the disturbance being once conceded, 
the wonder ceases that this little comet was torn to pieces. 
4. I mention Comet 1861 II., because the earth is thought by some to 
have passed through its tail on June 30th, and it is worth noting that 
there was no magnetic disturbance then.* I was living at Quebec, and 
saw behind very light clouds a glow which I took to be auroral. I have 
since come to think it was the comet’s tail; perhaps small particles of 
matter incandescing by friction in the higher regions of the air,as do the 
falling stars, which some say are the discards of comets, and thus pro- 
ducing a diffused mild radiance. 
The history of this comet is not well given, but it “suffered a great 
change” at some date, possibly July 2nd, for it is noted then. There is 
so slight a depression in the solar magnetic curve that I can scarcely 
connect it with the cometic change. No solar disturbance is reflected 
by our magnets between June 13th and July 5th which seems powerful 
enough to produce the effect hinted at rather than described, and the 
depression of July 5th is only moderate. 
5. It was with some excitement that, after examining the records 
of these late and small comets, I turned to the history of the magnificent 
Donati’s comet of 1858, that flaming scimitar which after sunset spanned 
the Western sky, and whose splendid beauty none but those of over fifty 
can remember. A\ll the records agree that “on October 3rd, the matter 
comprising the nucleus and envelope was evidently in a continual state of 
local excitement.” For some reason, quite immaterial, the Toronto mag- 
netic records for 1858 are not among my collection—immaterial, that is, 
because the magnets are similarly affected all round the world, as I 
shewed the Institute in a previous paper, in which the curves from To- 
ronto and those from Tiflis, in the Caucasus, were placed on the same 
sheet, which showed their practical identity as to the time of disturbance. 
The Institute fortunately possesses the Bombay magnetic records for 
1858, and they shew that the most important dip for many days took 
*There is no disturbance of the magnet during the period of the stream of Leonid meteors, nor of Per- 
seids, nor probably of any other. There is thus no magnetic influence in comets’ tails or their possible dis- 
cards, which acts upon the earth, or, @ fortiorz, on the sun. 
