Year: 1874

Il 4


Although at the present moment Coggia's
comet, taken as a whole-that is, head and tail
together-is probably nearer to us than it ever
has been or will be, still the time has come
for bidding it farewell. For a day or two
longer, observers with good eyes and much
faith, may, it is said, if they know where to
look for it, see the dim haze of the
tail; and indeed, a day or two
will yet elapse before the extreme
edge of that appendage will have cured
around into its nearest approach to earth.
But for most people the comet, being out of
sight, is out of mind; and as the residents OF
our hemisphere bid it goOd-bye-"it it may be
" for years, it may be f0rever"-we have
summed up in another column all that has
been ascertained about this departing repre-
sentative of other worlds than ours.


We can imagine the solemn earnestness
with which Prof. Lewis Swift of Rochester
babe the comet farewell. He is celebrated In
astronomical annals as a discoverer of comets
and was the first in this country to observe
and identify the one which has received
Coggia's name. TO gain parting look at
this comet, Prof Swift had his telescope con-
veyed some miles out of the City of Rochester;





the last man in North America to see the
comet, as it sank below the waves of Lake
Ontario. Had it appeared in the earlier cen
turies of historic time, had the sages OF Greece
or Rome seen it sink below the Mediterranean,
the record OF its course from near the Greater
Bear across the Lynx and down to the horizon
where yet the Twins have not arisen, would
have comprised the sum total of
its story. But when coming months shall bring
us tidngs from below the tropics, we shall
hear again from the white robed wanderer.
coursing through the southern consultations rs
if to seek rest beneath the pole of the an
tipodes Scarcely perhaps will it be visible, yet in
the twilight, as it passes PrOcyOn in the Lesser
Dog; perhaps at its brightest in southern lati-
tudes it will shine one degree distant from Sirius
greatest of the stars; then gradually fading
rs it mounts the southern heavens where
Palas long ago translated the good ship Argo
to rest from all adventure, with the golden
fleece upon the prov and bright Canopus
shining on the oarblade fading still while
passing the flaming Cross; sinking finally into
obscurity in the Chameleon.


To many who have never made special
study of celestial objects, the movement of
the comet almost directly from north to south
seems somewhat incxpcable. They recognize
the consultations of the zodiac, and know
that the eciptic, passing through these, is
merely the extension of the earthS orbit if it
were widened to the stars. But why, If the
comet is travelling around the sun from west
to east, does it appear to move from north
to south7 TO them the words of Galileo are
answer-E pw 81 muore. The earth's motion
from west to east is about the same as that
of the comet. Some of our readers have trav-
eled on the Pennsylvania Railroad and
passed around the Horseshoe riding al
most on the SUBMITS OF the noun
tains along that curve about deep, far
spreading valley. If. looking ont from the
side of the ear away from the valley, they
had deserted balloon high in air. blown by
the wind in the same direction as the cars
were moving, and at the same rate, but fall
ing downward with yet greater rapldity, they
would not have perceived for while that it
had any motion. 1t would simply seem to
grow larger, AS it neared the train, bow