166 Notices of Booh. [JutY 



North than on the South side ; — in the middle of it there appears a 

 dark conical patch of about 10" diameter at the base, which extends to 

 a distance of 15' or 20' from the Comet; it there is very faint and 

 blended with the tail, and at 30' distance it is altogether lost : in the 

 observations of the two last days, the hazy state of the air and presence 

 of the Moon fully accounts for my not having noticed this before — 

 whilst looking at this singular appearance, I cannot help fancying that 

 the dark patch arises from the body of the Comet intercepting the 

 light of the Sun, thereby causing the appearance of a conical shadow j 

 to reconcile this supposition with the relative distances of the Comet, 

 Earth, and Sun, it is necessary to suppose the Comet to be surround- 

 ed with an atmosphere of very considerable extent and of a highly 

 refracting nature — the diameter of the Comet I estimate to be 10" or 12/ 

 " 8 & 9. The above appearance continues. 



" IH. The Comet was very distinctly visible to the unassisted eye, 

 but by reason of trees obstructing the view from the station hitherto 

 employed, 1 was obliged to remove the telescope to the verandah. 



" December 23. Very distinct to the naked eye as a nebulosity. 



" Jan. 19. Very distinct with a moderate light in the field. 



" Jan. 31. The appearance of the Comet has much changed dur- 

 ing the last seven days, the brightness being much diminished and the 

 magnitude of the nucleus very much decreased, whilst that of the 

 general ouJine has much increased: at present the diameter including 

 the tail which surrounds it, is 10 or 12 minutes — visible as a nebula to 

 the unassisted eye. 



" Feb. 5. The appearance of the Comet has altered considerably 

 (making allowance for the presence of the moon), the brilliancy has 

 much diminished —it now appears as a faint nebulosity of uncertain 

 figure. 



" April 3. Air very clear — my assistant fancied he could see it 

 without the assistance of the telescope when pointed out to him. I 

 could not see it when on the meridian although clear — the appearance 

 through the telescope was altogether visionary. I sometimes doubted 

 if I did see it or no ; the observations are however accordant. 



" From a few of the early observations I have computed the ele- 

 ments roughly as follows : 



Perihelion passage 1835 Nov. 16,19 Madras M. T. 



o ' " 



Longitude of Perihelion 304 12 10 



„ of Ascending Node 55 9 16 



Inclination 17 49 1 



Ratio of the eccentricity ,967632 



Semi axis major 17,98705 



Motion Eetrogade." 



