122 HISTOEY OF ASTRONOMY. 



of a luminous globular body with a short train the 

 whole taken together being found by measurement about 

 one degree in length. The head of the comet, as ob- 

 served by the naked eye, appeared circular; its light 

 equal to that of the moon at midnight in a clear sky ; 

 and its apparent size about one eighth the area of the fall 

 moon. Some of the observers compared it to a small 

 cloud strongly illuminated by the sun. The train was of 

 a paler light, gradually diverging from the nucleus, and 

 melting away into the brilliant sky. An observer at 

 Woodstock, Yt., viewed it through a common three fe$t 

 telescope. It presented a distinct and most beautiful ap- 

 pearance exhibiting a very white and bright nucleus, 

 and a tail dividing near the nucleus into two separate 

 branches. At Portland, Me., Captain Clark measured 

 the distance of the nucleus from the sun, the only meas- 

 urement (with one exception) known to have been made 

 in any part of the globe before the 3d of March. At 3h. 

 2m. 15s., mean time, the distance of the sun's farthest 

 limb from the nearest limb of the nucleus was 4 6' 16". 



In Mexico, Lat. 26 8' K, Long. 106 48' W. of Green- 

 wich, the comet was observed from nine in the morning 

 until sunset, by Mr. Bowring, and the altitude of the 

 comet repeatedly measured with a sextant. Professor 

 Bianchi, of Modena, in Italy, writes that on the 28th of 

 February, the comet was seen by numbers at Boulogne, 

 Parma and Genoa. 



It is said also that Captain Bay, being at Conception, 

 in South America, saw the comet on the 27th of Feb- 



