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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Arch above arch, aurora-like, they rise, — 
Concentric canopies, cometic skies.” 
Mr. Wray noticed that the branches, or jets, proceeding from 
the nucleus alternated in brightness. The apparent left spur, 
marked A (as seen in an inverting telescope), which was very 
bright on July 4, afterwards became almost invisible, the others 
remaining nearly of the same lustre. On July 1 1 the head, 
which had hitherto been of a regular parabolic figure, became 
narrower as it joined with the tail ; the part B in the sketch 
(which was taken with my telescope of 3§-inch aperture), was 
much brighter than the opposite side, and slightly convex. 
The remarkable increase in the length of the tail between 
June 30 and July 4 may be considered as astounding, even in 
this marvellous class of objects. Sir J. Herschel considered 
the length of the tail on the former evening as 30°, which, at 
the then distance of the comet, would be about 61, millions of 
miles in length. On July 4 he considered it as 80° in length, 
or the actual length would be about 2 7 millions of miles ! The 
phenomena which were going on within the canopy of flame 
termed the luminous sector, or fan, were, it is true, on a less 
gigantic scale ; but what prodigies of creative force and energy 
were even there evoked ! — the “pellet” of concentrated light 
(as it was designated on June 30), called the nucleus, a few days 
later throwing up mighty columns of nebulous matter towards 
the sun, forming a dome of inconceivable girth (some 35,000 
miles from the spot it sprung from and enveloped), and then 
flowing silently backwards and adding millions of miles to the 
milky train following the meteor. We can only imagine some 
cloud-like formation of extreme tenuity to be capable of these 
sudden changes, and even then under the influence of some 
overpowering force. 
