CHAPTER VI 

 THE DAYLIGHT COMET'S DEPARTURE 



COMETS may come and comets may go, but the weather 

 is always with us. And what more tantalising than 

 its vagaries just at a time when those vagaries are 

 spoiling an historic sky-picture ! For here were we 

 warmly congratulating ourselves upon our nocturnal 

 view of the great Daylight Comet, when lo ! down 

 upon the North Countree there swooped a succession 

 of snow-blizzards the like of which we had not ex- 

 perienced for long enough. The comet went from our 

 ken with those wild and whirling flakes, and ever 

 since have the skies at sunset lowered sullenly. 



When I last saw the comet not many hours before 

 the great snowstorm set in and lightnings flashed in 

 the morning darkness it had lost some of its brilliance. 

 From an object most imposing it had become spectral, 

 wan, as though its light were shining through a veil 

 of mist. Its nucleus, too, had shrunk, and from re- 

 sembling a dulled Mars at opposition it had dwindled 

 to a vapour-immersed Betelgeuse or Aldebaran. 



Clearly this big South -African -discovered comet 

 (first seen in broad daylight) was in its decline, and 

 perhaps, after all, it was a mercy that the blizzards 

 blotted it out from the sight of those who had known 

 it in better times. 



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