The Arizona sentinel., 1888-07-07

cloud, for it stretched apparently half
 across the heavehN I could not 1 believe 1t to be a ooruet, my
 notions of comets tail be-
 ing derived from what I had
 seen of Halley's comet when a
 boy, and which had tail appearing about as long as moons breadth, but
 that of 1S43 spanned as great d space
 in the heavens as would one hundred
 and twenty moons placed in a row, and
 its width was equal to more than half
 a-dozen moons put side by side. This comet approached so closely to the sun that it must have grazed the solar at mosphere.
 Such was the case still more remark ably with the et comet of 1882, which on Septe1h' fth was seen bJ two of the official astronomers at the Cape of Good Hope observatory, actually to strike the edge of the sun and plunge into his outer atmosphere. The comet had the worst of this en- counter, for after it left the sun its head was seen to be in three pieces, and these pieces were moving farther and farther apart as though one side of the comet, that which brushed the sun, had been retarded by friction, and thus was gradually left behind as the other parts advanced.
 Biela's comet, one of short period, that formerly came in sight every six and one-half years, was seen on the 18th of January, 1S46, to be split into two. These halves, on their return in 1852, were a million and a quarter miles apart. The broken comet was again due in 1872, and should have came close to the earth on November 27 of that year, but instead of the comet there was a brilliant shower of tens of thousands of shooting stars, all pouring from the place when the comet should have been.
 It is very probable that the heads of comets are composed of myriads of small particles of matter of the same kind as those which so frequently strike cur atmosphere and are seen as shooting. stars. Such cloud of fragments would form a system of their own, the smaller revolving about the larger, like our planets round the sun, and moons around the planets. Such col lection might travel as comets do, though sometimes leaving a trail O. small pieces behind.
 It is a curious fact that when the earth strikes across the path along which a comet has travelled, we usual ly witness @ display of shooting stars, as though we encountered such trail. Note that this traiI is quite different from the tdiL. .-------r-- -
 In conclusion I may add that we need not be alarmed even if we should find the earth to be drifting point blank to- ward the head of comet. For my self I should be delighted with the news, and prepare to witness glorious display of celestial fireworks. The small amount of material in comets is pIOfCu UJ Ol1O 1dCO tl1dG SOdIo tIO N1Sl- ble through their very centers, and further by what happened to Lexell's comet in 177O, which became entan- gled among the satellites of Jupiter. and was dragged hither and thither by them during four months without sen- sibly disturbing the paths of either oi them.
 As gravitation is mutual and propor- tionate to the mass of matter acting and being acted upon, the material oi this comet must have been very flimsy. It came within one million four hum dred thousand miles of the earth with out disturbing our movements in the smallest measurable degree.
 l long ago expressed my conviction that comets instead of being 1nstru- ments of mischief have really been to this world, have SUD- piled us with the chief element of our food. This, however, belongs more directly to the subject of shooting stars than to the comets with which they are so intimately associated.-W Mattieu WSLLiGns, r. R. 4. S., 2. c. S., in Youth's Companion.