216 



HALLEY S COMET. 



As an early riser, however, or at any rate as an early singer 

 in the matter of greeting the approaching dawn, I have noticed 

 before now that he is by no means last in the field. On this 

 particular morning the pleasant sound fell on my ear at 2.45 

 o'clock and, at 3, when owing to much haze I gave up the 

 search for Halley's and went indoors again, the bird was still 

 calling cuckoo, cuckoo, while as yet none of the other 

 songsters stirred. 



Because of bad weather I succeeded in getting one other 

 view only of the comet during its phase as a morning star. 

 This was on Wednesday, May 11th, when I with three other 

 enthusiasts obtained a few feeble telescopic glimpses between 

 3.15 and 3.40 o'clock from our garden at Les Blanches. 



Eight days later, on Thursday, May 19th, the much 

 talked-about and, in some quarters, not a little dreaded 

 transit of the body across the sun's face occurred. Astrono- 

 mers were expecting great things from the event and hoped to 

 see the comet projected as a dark spot against the bright 

 surface of the sun. Then too there was the possibility, so it 

 seemed, of the earth plunging through the comet's tail, should 

 that lengthy appendage be a certain number of million of 

 miles long — when according to some authorities wonderful 

 things might be expected to happen from a meteorological as 

 well as from an astronomical point of view. So everybody 

 was on the qui vive — some full of scientific curiosity, others 

 full of fear and trembling. And now that it is all over and 

 the danger past, astronomers are disputing amongst themselves 

 as to whether the earth did or did not pass through the 

 dreadful tail. Nobody appears to know. Nobody it seems is 

 able to affirm one way or the other and we shall probably 

 never know for sure. Of one thing, however, astronomers are 

 satisfied, viz., that the nucleus was not seen in transit at those 

 observatories able to watch the sun at the critical time. 



At Guernsey fine clear moonlight prevailed on the 

 evening preceding the day of the transit, and at 9 o'clock and 

 for half-an-hour or so afterwards several long shafts of whitish 

 light were observed rising far into the sky from the sun's 

 position below the horizon These rays were seen by Mr. 

 Collenette, Mr. Rammell and myself, and Mr. Collenette 

 inclines to the opinion that they were a portion of the comet's 

 tail in which the earth was then immersed. Some amongst us 

 were curious enough to stay up that night in the hope of 

 seeing something, but the only thing witnessed was a change 

 of weather. By 11 o'clock the fine, clear moonlight was all 

 at an end for cloud came up very quickly after 10 and a faint 



