1 56 Miscellanies. 



into an ill defined margin, the whole occupying a space of about two 

 minutes in diameter. 



For several nights succeeding the 31st of August, the sky was 

 remarkably serene, and Messrs. Olmsted and Loomis examined the 

 comet every morning from one to three o'clock, until the 4th of 

 September, when the presence of the moon rendered their opportu- 

 nities less favorable. On the 4th, its position was peculiarly fortu- 

 nate, being in the same field (in the finder) with a fine cluster of 

 stars, marked No. 377 in Herschel's Catalogue. 



On the 21st of September, the comet was observed about two de- 

 grees to the north of Kappa Aurigae, having, by this time, so much 

 increased in magnitude and brightness, as to be visible in the small- 

 est telescopes, and even faintly discernible to the naked eye. Pro- 

 fessor Anderson, of Columbia College, announced that it could be 

 seen, by unassisted vision, as early as the 19th. 



The observations made at Yale College, and published on the 

 first of September, were confirmed by different observers, particu- 

 larly by Mr. S. C. Walker of Philadelphia, and by Mr. William 

 Mitchell of Nantucket, who first saw the comet on the 4th of Sep- 

 tember, before he had heard of the observations made at New 

 Haven. 



According to the English newspapers, it appears, that the first 

 sight of the comet in England, was obtained on the morning of the 

 23d of August, by Sir James South. 



Since the comet has been visible, without the aid of a telescope, 

 it has increased rapidly in brightness to the present time. On the 

 evening of the 10th of October, it first exhibited to the naked eye a 

 slight elongation, in a direction opposite to the sun, which, on the 

 next evening was unexpectedly extended into a train eight or ten 

 degrees in length, having its vertex a little below Kappa Draconis. 

 On the 12th, at 7 o'clock in the evening, the nucleus appeared re- 

 markably bright, and exhibited on the upper side (in the astronom- 

 ical telescope) a peculiar emanation of light, resembling the brush 

 of electric light from a pointed wire when highly charged and seen 

 in a dark room. It seemed like the beginning of a new and more 

 brilliant train. On the 13th, this luminous pencil had disappeared, 

 but the coma had sensibly increased in brightness and density, and 

 the tail was elongated to twelve degrees, reaching towards the star 

 Iota Draconis. The comet is now beginning to recede rapidly from 

 - the earth, and will come to its perihelion on the 16th of November. 



Yale College, October 14, 1835. 



