ON COMETS. 95 



pened several times, and in one case quite recently ; for 

 the great comet of 1843 was seen at noonday quite close 

 to the sun both in Nova Scotia and at Madrid, and be- 

 fore sunset at the Cape of Good Hope.* Of course it 

 is only the brightest part, or the head of a comet that 

 can ever be so seen. The faint light of the tail has no 

 chance of contending against broad daylight. 



(4.) Before the invention of telescopes the appearance 

 of a comet was a rare occurrence, because only a small 

 proportion of them can ever be seen by the naked eye, 

 and of them again only a small portion are considerable 

 enough to attract much attention but since that dis- 

 covery it has been ascertained that they are very numer 

 ous hardly a year passes without one ; and very often 

 two, three, and in one year, 1846, no less than eight were 

 observed. Taking only two a year on an average as 

 visible if looked for in a telescope, and considering that 

 at least as many must occur in such situations that we 

 could not expect to see them in the 6000 years of re- 

 corded history there must have been between twenty and 

 thirty thousand comets, great and small. A great comet, 

 however, hardly occurs on an average oftener than once 

 in fifteen or twenty years, or even yet more rarely; 



* At Halifax, in the first mentioned colony, my informant saw a 

 number of persons natives of the place hale and sturdy men, 

 gathered in a group and gazing full on the sun, which, when he at- 

 tempted to do, dazzled and almost blinded him. He was compelled 

 to desist, and inquire what they were looking at, and how they 

 could do so without being blinded. "Blinded!" was the reply 

 "Lord bless you, it does not hurt us; what, can't you see it that 

 thing up by the sun ? " 



