THE SIDE OF THE EARTH STRUCK BY THE COMET {left}

THE SIDE NOT STRUCK BY THE COMET {right}

{p. 94}

pin-head. And I have not drawn the comet on a scale large enough as
compared with the earth.

If the reader will examine the map on page 93, he will see that the
distribution of the Drift accords with this theory. If we suppose the
side of the earth shown in the left-hand figure was presented to the
comet, we will see why the Drift is supposed to be confined to
Europe, Africa, and parts of America; while the right-hand figure
will show the half of the world that escaped.

"The breadth of the tail of the great comet of 1811, at its widest
part, was nearly fourteen million miles, the length one hundred and
sixteen million miles, and that of the second comet of the same year,
one hundred and forty million miles."[1]

On page 95 is a representation of this monster.

Imagine such a creature as that, with a head _fifty times as large as
the moon_, and a tail one hundred and sixteen million miles long,
rushing past this poor little earth of ours, with its diameter of
only seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-five miles! The earth,
seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-five miles wide, would simply
make a bullet-hole through that tail, fourteen million miles broad,