Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/249

Rh mention that, though now universally known as “Donati’s Comet,”—Professor Donati, of Florence, enjoying the credit and reputation of having “sighted” me first, on the 2nd June, 1858—a reclamation has been put in by Dr. Winneke, of Bonn, who declares having discovered me as early as the 9th March; and by Father Neslhuber, Director of the Kremsmünster Observatory, who professes to have seen me in the constellation Aquila, on the 19th March. Dr. Bruhns, of Berlin, has calculated that I complete my revolution round the sun in an eccentric ellipse, in a period of 2,100 years; my greatest distance from the sun, which it will take me 1,050 years to reach, being about 31,506,000,000 miles.

And now, farewell! till our next meeting. Methinks I hear you exclaim, that this is scant and meagre information indeed. Patience, my little friends; at my next appearance—whenever that may be—I trust I may be in a position to tell a different and more circumstantial and satisfactory “Tale of a Comet.”