according to the cheapness of their materials and the necessaries of
life. The same may be said in favour of more sheep and woollen cloths.

(_To be concluded in our next_.)

* * * * *


THE EXPECTED COMET.


The comet of Biela is approaching the earth's orbit with increasing
velocity, and towards the end of the following month it will partially
intersect the course which the earth traverses in its journey round the
sun. Happily, the comet will be in advance of the earth, so that unless
our globe augments its pace, or the anticipated visitant retards its
journey, there will be no risk of any dangerous proximity, much less of
a hostile collision. During this return, at least, it will always be
more than two hundred times the moon's distance from us; and were it,
at any future time, to approach very much nearer than the orbit of our
satellite, its influence would be too inconsiderable to affect any of
the elements of the earth's path.

This comet is about 40,000 miles in diameter, and of that class termed
nebulous, having no tail, and probably no solid nucleus. The point where
the comet's centre crosses the plane of the ecliptic is within and very
near the curve which the earth describes,--so very near, that the
outskirts of the nebulous matter of the comet might possibly, at some
future visit, envelope our planet, and would thus enclose the earth, it
is not unlikely, at its ensuing return, if it were about a month later