192 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



Padre Secchi, at Rome, detected a faint comet pre- 

 ceding it. If, as is probable, this faint comet is the 

 companion, we may assume that the two bodies are 

 permanently separated. 



At the two next returns the comet was not seen, 

 and much interest was felt by astronomers respecting 

 the anticipated return in January 1866. It was 

 searched for systematically at the principal European 

 observatories. In fact, so closely did Father Secchi 

 examine the calculated track of the comet, that he 

 detected several new nebulae in that region. But the 

 comet itself was not found. Astronomers are unable 

 to assign any satisfactory reasons for its disappearance. 

 It is known to have traversed the zone of the Novem- 

 ber meteors where that zone is richest our readers 

 will remember the display of shooting-stars in 1866 

 and Sir J. Herschel surmises that it may have been 

 destroyed in the encounter. Possibly this may be the 

 true solution of the difficulty ; or, it may be that the 

 comet was merely dispersed for a while during the 

 passage of the meteor-zone, and may yet gather itself 

 together and become visible to astronomers. 1 



We pass over three or four comets belonging to this 

 class which present no special features of interest, to 



1 The return of this comet in 1872 was eagerly looked for by astro- 

 nomers. But the comet was not seen. On November 27, 1872, there 

 was a fine display of meteors, as the earth passed through the comet's 

 track, and afterwards a cometic object was seen in the direction towards 

 which the meteors had been travelling. But this was not Biela's comet, 

 which, indeed, must have passed that place nearly twelve weeks earlier. 

 Indeed, some doubt exists whether the object was travelling in the 

 track either of the comet or of the meteors. 



