ce perhaps so many Comets have now no tails.

Donati's Comet, the great Comet of 1858, was first noticed on the 2d
June as a faint nebulous spot. For three months it remained quite
inconspicuous, and even at the end of August was scarcely visible to the
naked eye. In September it grew rapidly, and by the middle of October
the tail extended no less than 40 degrees, after which it gradually
disappeared.

Faint as is the light emitted by Comets, it is yet their own, and
spectrum analysis has detected the presence in them of carbon, hydrogen,
nitrogen, sodium, and probably of iron.

Comets then remain as wonderful, and almost as mysterious, as ever, but
we need no longer regard "a comet as a sign of impending calamity; we
may rather look upon it as an interesting and a beautiful visitor, which
comes to please us and to instruct us, but never to threaten or to
destroy."[69] We are free, therefore, to admire them in peace, and
beautiful, indeed, they are.

"The most wonderful sight I remember," says Hamerton, "as an effect of
calm, was the inversion of Donati's Comet, in the year 1858, during the
nights when it was sufficiently near the horizon to approach the rugged
outline of Graiganunie, and be reflected beneath it in Loch Awe. In the
sky was an enormous aigrette of diamond fire, in the water a second
aigrette, scarcely less splendid, with its brilliant point directed
upwards, and its broad, shadowy extremity ending indefinitely in the
deep. To be out on the lake alone, in a tiny boat, and let it rest
motionless on the glassy water, with that incomparable spectacle before
one, was an experience to be remembered through a lifetime. I have seen
many a glorious sight since that now distant year, but nothing to equal
it in the association of solemnity with splendour."[70]

SHOOTING STARS

On almost any bright night, if we watch a short time some star will
suddenly seem to drop from its place, and, after a short plunge, to
disappear. This appearance is, however, partly illusory. While true
stars are immense bodies at an enormous distance, Shooting Stars are
very small, perhaps not larger than a paving stone, and are not visible
until they come within the limits of our atmosphere, by the friction
with which they are set on fire and dissipated. They are much more
numerous on some nights than others. From the 9th to the 11th August we
pass through one cluster which is known as the Perseids; and on the 13th
and 14th Novemb