52 Star anfr Meatber (Bosstp 



terror to the view. When they are millions of miles 

 away from us we see them in a compact form, stretch- 

 ing sometimes through many degrees of the heavens. 

 But let us become immersed in the tail-matter, and 

 lo ! we are unconscious of the comet's very existence, 

 so tenuous, so ethereal is that tail-matter. It would 

 give us no " bump " ; it would not obstruct even the 

 light of a star so faint as to require optical aid to render 

 it visible to the eye. Its rarefied gases, indeed, would 

 not probably reach the surface of the earth at all, pro- 

 tected as we are by a thick atmospheric envelope. 

 The outer portions of our atmosphere, however, might 

 have certain of its elements renewed by the earth's 

 passage through the tail of such a large comet as 

 Halley's, or Donati's, but that does not seem to me to 

 be sufficient justification for a person taking so antici- 

 patory and irreparable a step as that taken by the 

 neurotic man of Valencia. 



What else was it but a cometary ghost that drew 

 all eyes to the luminous west those pleasant evenings 

 of May ! What but the ghost of Halley's Comet 

 revisiting after three-quarters of a century the pale 

 glimpses of our twilight skies of Spring ! And a shy 

 ghost it was at that. Perhaps it realised having made 

 its nocturnal appearance prematurely, and wished to 

 withdraw until a more timely season. 



In truth did we get the shadow when we expected 

 the substance, and even the shadow was disappointing. 

 The very ghost of " Halley's " was in its decadence. 

 It made one wonder if, in the event of a return, it 



