The illustration on page 88 gives the orbit of the
earth and the orbit of this comet, and shows how closely
they approached each other; when at its nearest, the
comet was only distant from the earth 0.13 of the
distance of the earth from the sun.
It comes back in eleven years, or in 1891.
On the 22d of June, 1881, a comet of great brilliancy
flashed suddenly into view. It was unexpected,
and advanced with tremendous rapidity. The illustration
on page 89 will show how its flight intersected the
orbit of the earth. At its nearest point, June
19th, it was distant
{p. 88}
from the earth only 0.28 of the distance of the sun
from the earth.
Now, it is to be remembered that great attention has
been paid during 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.
When we consider the millions of comets around us,
and when we remember how near some of these have come
to us during the last few years, who will undertake
to say that during the last thirty thousand, fifty
thousand, or one hundred thousand years, one of these
erratic luminaries, with blazing front and train of
débris, may not have come in collision with
the earth?
{p. 91}
THE CONSEQUENCES
TO THE EARTH.
IN this chapter I shall try to show what effect the
contact of a comet must have had upon the earth and
its inhabitants.
I shall ask the reader to follow the argument closely
first, that he may see whether any part of the theory
is inconsistent with the well-established principles
of natural philosophy; and, secondly, that he may
bear the several steps in his memory, as he will find,
as we proceed, that every detail of the mighty
catastrophe has been preserved in the legends of mankind,
and precisely in the order in which reason tells us
they must have occurred.
