260 Mr. Halliwell om an accowit of the comet ofl^l'i. 



suaded would hang over the older rocks as long as they were 

 all considered to belong to the dark and undefined sera of 

 '• Grauwacke: " and we trust that we have, in this memoir, 

 shown strong additional grounds why this mineralogical term 

 should be disused by geologists, as a term of classification, 

 applied as it has been to rocks of such very different ages ; 

 thus serving as a shelter for ignorance, and paralyzing every 

 effort for determining the succession of strata upon true 

 principles. If its lovers wish still to cling to it, let them use 

 it as an adjective and tell us of Carboniferous, Devonian, Silu- 

 rian, and Cambriaii " Grauisoacke," and then, at least, the 

 term will do no mischief. The continuance of the use of this 

 term to represent different epochs in the history of the earth 

 would be as absurd as to retain the old " flotz" formations 

 of Werner, after it has been shown that such rocks are often 

 as highly inclined as the most ancient strata ; but we trust that 

 any wrangling about this barbarous word is nearly at an end; 

 for already some of the best foreign geologists have discarded 

 its application to the upper systems of transition rocks, and 

 now restrict its use as a term of classification to the lowest 

 slaty or Cambrian rocks. 



March 25, 1839. 



[A Postscript to this paper will be found at p. 317 of the present Num- 

 ber.] 



XLI. On a very particular and curious Account of the Comet 

 ofl^ll, from a contemporary MS. Chronicle in Peterhouse 

 Library. By J. O, Halliwell, Esq., F.S.A., of Jesus 

 College, Cambridge. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 

 Gentlemen, 

 'T^HE following minute description of the comet of 1472 is 



-*- taken from an autograph chronicle of English affairs by 

 John Warkworth, master of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, 

 still preserved in the library of that institution. I am pre- 

 paring the whole for publication for the Camden Society. 



" And in same xi yere of the kynge, in the begynnynge of 

 Januarii, there apperyd the moste mervelous blasynge sterre 

 that hade bene seyn. It aroose in the Southe-Este at ij of the 

 cloke at mydnyght, and so contynued a xij nyghtes, and it 

 arose ester and ester till it aroose full este and rather. And 

 so when it roose playn Est, it rose at x of cloke in the nyght, 

 and kept his cours flaraynge Westward overe Englond ; and 

 it hade a white flaume of fyre fervently brennynge, and it 

 flamed endlonges fro the Est to the Weste, and noght vp- 



