, 1882-09-30

~. DITCH WAS 6l6CLcQ UNANIMOUSLY WIN
four votes.
The Comet.-Most of our readers
have probably seen the brilliant comet,
which for the last week Or more has risen
in the east shortly before the sun. 1t APP
pears brightest as it comes above the
horizon at about half past four o'clock,
and gradually fades as the sunlight in
creases, till it is lost in the clear light Of
day. This brilliant visitor must be visible
all through the tropics, at the least, and is
no doubt being eagerly observed by the
astronomers in many places. We have
heard that some curious opinions about it
are adoat among the pOpulace here, some
thinking that it portends rain, others that
it means drought Or some other calamity.
1t is not only in Santa Cruz that such
ideas prevail. In Europe comets have
always been supposed by the unlearned
to denote the approach of war, plague,
or some other great evil. This perhaps
has arisen not only from their extraOrdi-
nary appearance, so different from that
of every other heavenly body, but also
from the apparent irregularity with which
they come and go. If it were generally
known that they are as strictly under
rule in their motions as the moon or as
the earth on which we live, the superstitiOus
ideas connected with them would no doubt
be given up for more sensible views.
The merit of proving that comets
obey the same law of gravity as all the
other bodies which revOlve about the sun
is due to an English astronomer named
Haley. He made some observations in
1852 on the path of a comet which appear
ed in that year, and which has since been
BnOun NV hiC n0,,,o ENrOv, +loro o1~cr-O
tons he predicted that it would reappear
early In 1859. 1t was accordingly looked
for by the astronomers of that day, and
in point of fact it was at its nearest to the
sun on the 10Th of March 1859. The comet
again came round to the same position in
1885, and on that occasion the astronomers
were able to foretelI the time of it's appear
ance to within five days. Halley's comet
revOlves about the sun therefore in a period
OF about rs years. There are several other
we'll known comets which have much short
or periods, and others again whose periods
are reckOned at many thousands of years.
In regard to some of these latter, some
astronomers consider that they may never
return to OursyStem, A comets path round
the sun differs from that Of a planetin being
much longer and narrower: while a planets
course is a nearly circular ellipse, a comets
course forms a narrow ellipse having the
sun near to one end. Consequently
q comet having a large orbit may,
IN its path to and from the sun,
cross the paths of the different planets,
and fears have sometimes been express
ed of the possibility of a destructive COLI
sion with one of the planets, perhaps with
the earth itself. Astronomers assure us
however that the substance of a comet is
of so thin and light a nature, lighter than
the lightest mist we could conceive of,
that we might reasonably expect that no
harm could happen from such a contact.
Such speculatiOns, however, will have little
value till more is known about these
bodies. With regard to the true nature of
a comets substance, the formation of the
%''tail", and why that strange stream of light
should be a~lwaysIpointed away from the sun,
nearly everything has yet to be learned.
Possibly the present unusually brilliant
comet may teach something of these things
to the learned before it again passes out of
sight.
II T. L. n q r. a M S.