THE NE W STAR WHICH FADED INTO STAR-MIST. \ 19 



masses were following in the train of a known comet, pre- 

 cisely as the November meteors follow in the train of 

 Tempel's comet (II., 1866). For we know that November 

 meteoric displays have been witnessed for five or six years 

 after the passage of Tempel's comet, in its thirty-three year 

 orbit, while the August meteoric displays have been witnessed 

 fully one hundred and twenty years after the passage of their 

 comet (II., 1862).* Now only sixteen years before the solar 

 outburst witnessed by Carrington and Hodgson, a magnificent 

 comet had passed even closer to the sun than either Tempel's 

 comet or the second comet of 1862 approached the earth's 

 orbit That was the famous comet of the year 1843. Many 

 of us remember that wonderful object I was but a child 

 myself when it appeared, but I can well remember its 

 amazing tail, which in March, 1843, stretched half-way across 

 the sky. 



" Of all the comets on record," says Sir J. Herschel, 

 "that approached nearest the sun; indeed, it was at first 

 supposed that it had actually grazed the sun's surface, but it 

 proved to have just missed by an interval of not more than 

 80,000 miles about a third of the distance of the moon 

 from the earth, which (in such a matter) is a very close shave 

 indeed to get clear off." 



We can well believe that the two meteors which produced 

 the remarkable outburst of 1859 may have been stragglers 

 from the main body following after that gloaous comet. I 

 do not insist upon the connection. In fact, I rather incline 

 to the belief that the disturbance in 1859, occurring as it did 

 about the time of maximum sun-spot frequency, was caused 

 by meteors following in the train of some as yet undiscovered 

 comet, circuiting the sun in about eleven years, the spots 



* It may seem strange to say that one hundred and twenty years after 

 the passage of a comet which last passed in 1862, and was then first 

 discovered, August meteors have been seen. But in reality, as we know 

 the period of that , comet to be about one hundred and thirty years, we 

 know that the displays of the years 1840, 1841, etc., to 1850, must 

 have followed the preceding passage by about that interval of time. 



