the past few years to searching for comets, and some of the results
are here given. As many as five were discovered during the year 1881.
But not

###

ORBIT OF EARTH AND COMET

a few of the greatest of these strange orbs require thousands of
years to complete their orbits. The period of the comet of July,
1844, has been estimated at not less than one hundred thousand years!

Some of those that have flashed into sight recently have been
comparatively small, and their contact with

{p. 89}

###

THE EARTH'S ORBIT

the earth might produce but trifling results. Others, again, are
constructed on an extraordinary scale; but even the largest of these
may be but children compared with the monsters that wander through
space on orbits

{p. 90}

that penetrate the remotest regions of the solar system, and even
beyond it.