Page:The story of the comets.djvu/163

IX. the perihelion occurs about the middle of October, and, as the epoch for the reappearance of the comet is about what it should be, there is "a fair probability" in favour of the identity.

A comet observed by the Chinese in the constellations Auriga, Ursa Major, and Scorpio in 608, was regarded by Hind as probably Halley's, who said that the track assigned

HALLEY'S COMET, 684. (From the Nuremberg Chronicle.)

would harmonise with a perihelion passage occurring about Nov. 1. Cowell and Crommelin, however, identified the Comet of 607 (i.) as Halley's.

The previous return should have occurred about 530. There was a comet in that year, and none of the few circumstances connected with it recorded by the European chroniclers are