Skptembek, 1901."! 



KNOWLEDGE 



203 



aiul ciimKI 1)0 tr;KvJ tn ft and a in Lcpus*. Tho 

 liciid was Yoi"\' bright and about equal in diamotcr to 

 Mars at present. Ou the 15th the fainter t<iil was 

 aKiut 'lo° long auJ reached nearly to /J Canis Majorls. 

 Since then the comet has declined rapidly, and at 

 prc'jeut, owing to the moon, is practically invisible to 

 the naked eye, though easily picked up in the telescope. 

 From the 5th to the 11th there were apparently two 

 fainter ravs or tails to be seen ou cither side of the 

 main tail. I attach a rough chart sliowiug the positions 

 of the comet from May 3rd to the l!7.t.h, the sketches of 

 tho 4th. 6th. 9th. 11th. and loth, in particular giving 

 tho general appeai-auce of the object on those days as 

 seen in a 3J inch equatorial by myself." 



Mr. H. Fai-uill-Scott, of Fort Hill. British Central 

 Africa, writes on May 23: — 'While proceeding on 

 Goverumeut business up Lake Nyasa on the s.s. 

 ■ Adventiu-e,' I obseiTcd a comet, and thinking some 

 details of its ajjpearance may be of interest. I venture | 

 to submit the following e.xcerpts from my diary. I may i 

 mention that some few days previous to my noticing the i 

 co.met my friend, Lieut.-Commandcr E. J. Sparkes, r.n.r., | 

 remarked to nie at Fort Johnston that he had observed 

 a comet ou April 27 or 28 just before sunrise, and 

 situate some 10° below the morning star ; this, I 

 presume, is the same object as that observed by me. 



"May 2. 1901. At 6.30 ^.m., immediately after 

 sunset, when off Usiska (on the western shore of Lake 

 Nyasa), in latitude 11 8' S. and longitude 34'' 12' E„ I 

 observed a bright comet travelling due north at an 

 angle of 30° with the horizon. The tail appeared as a 

 single column of light slightly wider at its fux'thest 

 distance from the head and brighter at its edges than 

 in the centre, the vipper edge being the brighter and 

 slightly convex. The head seemed surrounded, at any 

 rate, in front, by a dark zone. Moon neai-ly full ; the 

 comet disappeared behind a hill at 7 p.m. 



" May 3, cloudy. May 4, arrived at Karonga, latitude 

 9° 90' S.,longitude 33' 9' E. Noticed the comet at 6.40 p.m.. 

 and the moon not being quite up, it appeared brighter 

 and the tail seemed longer. It set about 7.10 p.m., the 

 tail being visible for some little time longer. 



" May 5. Saw the comet at 6.5.5 p.m. ; it was 

 situated then directly under the belt in the constellation 

 Orion and looked much brighter; it set about 7.20 p.m. 

 " May 6, cloudy. May 7. The comet came into view 

 at 7.14 p.m. The tail was now much brighter and 

 showed some signs of cleavage, the upper portion being 

 almost- parallel with the sword belt of Orion. Set at 

 7.27 p.m. 



■' May 8, 9, and 10. Kept the comet under obser- 

 vation with varying success, due to the presence or 

 atecnce of cloud and rain; its angle with the horizon 

 had become more vertical. 



"May II. This evening I watched tho comet from 

 7 to 7.36 p.m. The tail now partook of a V-shape, the 

 upper rays being still brighter than tho lower ones and 

 still convex, the two sets of rays embracing Orion's 

 sword. The meridian line between the two sets of rays 

 formed an angle of 45° with the horizon. 



" May 12, 13, and 14. I was down with malarial 

 fever and could make no observations of tho comet, but 

 was infoi-med that there was apparently little or no 

 variation from its appearance ou previous evenings. 



" May 16. Watched the comet from 7 to 7.50 p.m. 

 It seemed to be waning in brightness and visible to a 

 later hour, being higher in the heavens. 



■' ^fay 17, cloudy. May 18. This morning there was 



a partial eclipse of the sun; in \ i. w ot this I was up 

 betimes (4.30 a.m.) hoping to get a morning view of 

 our celestial visitor, but was disappointed, the alnio- 

 sphcrc being laden with vapour. Saw the comet again 

 in the evening at 7.10; its angle with the horizon was 

 60° and it was much dimmer though still quite 

 distinct. The tail was clearly visible after Orion had 

 set. It was much farther north than when I first saw 

 it on May 2. Set at 8.3 p.m. 



" May 19 to 22. Though keenly looked for, I was 

 un.iblo to sec the comet ; these evenings were cloudless 

 and starlight.' 



Fig. 2. — Urbit of the Cuiiict uiul Eni-tli. Fnnii Popular .Islrunmny, 



The suddenness of the comet's incursion is explained 

 by the path it pursued relatively to the orbit of tho 

 earth. It rapidly approached perihelion from the 

 opposite side of the sun to the earth and then the solar 

 rays veiled its approach until, having considerably 

 increased in brilliancy and developed a fine tail, the sun 

 could no longer afford an effectual screen. The comet 

 was then detected even amid the strong light of tho 

 circum-solar region, and when it was only 12° distant 

 from the sun. The conditions of its approach were such 

 that regular comet-seekers had very little chance of 

 discovering it, for it was very distant in the earlier 

 mouths of the year and must have been extremely faint, 

 though projected on a dark .sky. And the comet went 

 as it came, under circum.stances which prevented its 

 being traced but for a comparatively short interval. 

 When the comet was iiist seen it was in the eastern 

 extremity of Pisces and travelling rapidly cast- 

 wards. Traversing the head of Cetus, it passed between 

 Taurus and Eridanus, was very finely displayed when 

 amongst the well-known stars of Orion and was finally 

 lost as a naked eye object when situated in the head 

 of Monoceros. The comet seems to have been observed 

 at only three northern stations, viz., at the Lick and 

 Mount Lowe Observatories, California, and at the 

 Yerkes Observatory, Chicago. 



Very little information has yet been published as to 

 spectroscopic results. Sir D. Gill states in the Munthlij 

 Xotieti for .lunc that " the spectrum of the comet 



