the tail is
visible. It is strange that no one ever thought of that before, or
that any one feared the earth's passing through the tail of a comet.
It is obvious to me now that if there were any material substance, any
gas, however rarefied, in this hairlike[1] accompaniment, it would
immediately fall to the comparatively heavy head, and surround that as
a centre."

[1] Comet means literally a hair.

"How, then," asked Cortlandt, "do you account for the spaces between
those stones? However slight gravitation might be between some of the
grains, if it existed at all, or was unopposed by some other force,
with sufficient time--and they have eternity--every comet would come
together like a planet into one solid mass. Perhaps some similar force
maintains gases in the distended tail, though I know of no such, or
even any analogous manifestation on earth. If the law on which we have
been brought up, that 'every atom in the universe attracts every other
atom,' were without exceptions or modifications, that comet could not
continue to exist in its present form. Until we get some additional
illustration, however, we shall be short of data with which to
formulate any iconoclastic hypothesis. The source of the light, I must
admit, also puzzles me greatly. There is certainly no heat to which we
can attribute it."

Having gone beyond the fragments, they applied a strong repulsion
charge to the comet, creating thereby a perfect whirlpool among its
particles, and quickly left it. Half an hour later they again shut off
the current, as the Callisto's speed was sufficient.

For some time they had been in the belt of asteroids, but as yet they
had seen none near. The morning following their experience with the
comet, however, they went to their observatory after breakfast as
usual, and, on pointing their glasses forward, espied a comparatively
large body before them, a little to their right.

"That must be Pallas," said Cortlandt, scrutinizing it closely. "It
was discovered by Olbers, in 1802, and was the second asteroid found,
Ceres having been the first, in 1801. It has a diameter of about three
hundred miles, being one of the largest of these small planets. The
most wonderful thing about it is the inclination of its
orbit--thirty-five degrees--to the plane of the ecliptic; which means
that at each revolution in its orbit, it swings that much above and
below the imaginary plane cutting the sun at its equator, from w