REMARKABLE COMETS. 189 



The editor of the Missouri Republican, in the issue of June 13, in rep]\' to 

 an inquiry by a correspondent in regard to the abbreviation Mo. for Missouri, 

 states that Missouri means muddy, while J. P. Jones, in the last number of the 

 Review, says it means canoe. Which is correct. Osage. 



Can any of your readers inform me if there were any medals of honor dis- 

 tributed to any of the sailors or soldiers who served in the war of the Rebellion ? 



A. C. 



Can any student of Kansas history inform me how far north Coronado 

 reached in his celebrated march in search of the seven cities of Cibola ? 



A. C. 



THE MAGNETIC SURVEY OF MISSOURI ASSURED. 



Prof. Nipher writes as follows : " You will be interested in knowing that a 

 gentleman of St. Louis, whose name is withheld at his own request, has volun- 

 teered to pay the expense of the magnetic survey for the coming summer. This 

 arrangement will of course give me more time to work out the subject in a way 

 which will give more valuable results to science than if I were obliged to give at- 

 tention to the details of establishing meridian lines for the use of surveyors. So 

 far, the action of the Legislature is of advantage. It is perhaps wortny of record 

 as a fact which may be of interest to the future historian, that the Missouri Leg- 

 islature of 1 88 1 refused to authorize county courts to employ a competent person 

 to establish a true north and south line at the county seat, the compensation for 

 such work to be such as might be mutually agreed upon, not to exceed fifty dol- 

 lars. This bill was introduced in the House, and was rejected in that body by a 

 decided vote. Comment on such legislation is unnecessary." 



REMARKABLE COMETS. 



In unenlightened ages comets were looked on with terror, as portending pes- 

 tilence, war, the death of kings, or other calamitous or remarkable events. 

 Hence it happens that in the earlier descriptions of these bodies, they are 

 generally associated with some contemporaneous event. The descriptions of the 

 comets themselves are, however, so vague and indefinite as to be entirely devoid 

 of either instruction or interest, as it often happens that not even their course in 

 the heavens is stated. 



The Great Comet of 1680 is, as already said, remarkable for being not only a 

 brilliant comet, but the one by which Newton proved that the comets move under 

 the influence of gravitation of the sun. It first appeared in the autumn of 1680, 

 and continued visible most of the time till the following spring. It fell down 



