Yet another very significant fact is seen in the distribution of comets. Though they come from all parts of the heavens, they by no means come in equal abundance from all parts of the heavens; but are far more numerous about the poles of the ecliptic than about its plane. Speaking generally, comets having orbit-planes that are highly inclined to the ecliptic, are comets having orbits of which the major axes are highly inclined to the ecliptic--comets that come from high latitudes. This is not a necessary connexion; for the planes of the orbits _might_ be highly inclined to the ecliptic while the major axes were inclined to it very little. But in the absence of any habitually-observed relation of this kind, it may safely be concluded that, _on the average_, highly-inclined cometary orbits are cometary orbits with highly-inclined major axes; and that thus, a predominance of cometary orbits cutting the plane of the ecliptic at great angles, implies a predominance of cometary orbits having major axes that cut the ecliptic at great angles. Now the predominance of highly inclined cometary orbits, may be gathered from the following table, compiled by M. Arago, to which we have added a column giving the results up to a date two years later. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Inclinations. |Number of Comets |Number of Comets |Number of Comets | | |in 1831. |in 1853. |in 1855. | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Deg. to Deg. | | | | | From 0 to 10 | 9 | 19 | 19 | | " 10 " 20 | 13 | 18 | 19 | | " 20 " 30 | 10 | 13 | 14 | | " 30 " 40 | 17 | 22 | 22 | | " 40 " 50 | 14 | 35 | 36 | | " 50 " 60 | 23 | 27 | 29 | | " 60 " 70 | 17 | 23 | 25 | | " 70 " 80 | 19 | 26 | 27 | | " 80 " 90 | 15 | 18 | 19 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Total | 137 | 201 | 210 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------