_English Weather and Comet-seeking._—Only two new comets having been discovered in England during the last forty years some people regard our climate as in a great measure responsible for this. But the opinion seems to be erroneous. The lack of discoveries has arisen from want of effort as much as from want of opportunity. The best weather for comet-seeking is when the atmosphere is very transparent, and the stars are lucid and sparkling. Haze, fog, or cloud of any kind offers a serious hindrance. A thoroughly good night for planetary work is not usually good for cometary observation, because sharp definition is not so requisite as a very clear sky. A little fog or thin cloud, which will often improve planetary images, utterly obliterates a small telescopic comet. The air is sometimes very pure and dark after storms, and the stars remarkably bright; it is then that the best opportunities are afforded for comet-hunting. Any systematic and regular work like this may be pursued in this country with every prospect of success by an observer who will persevere in it. From some statistics printed in the ‘Science Observer,’ Boston, it appears that during the seven months from May to November, 1882, Lewis Swift was comet-seeking during 300 hours. I have no English results of the same kind, but my meteoric observations will supply a means of comparison. From June to November, 1887 (six months), I was observing during 217 hours, and for a nearly similar period during the last half of 1877, though in each year work was only attempted with the Moon absent. My result for 1887 averages 36 hours per month, which is little less than the average derived from the comet-seeking records above quoted. It is therefore fair to suppose that as much may be done here as in some regions of the United States. Mr. W. R. Brooks wrote me in 1889, saying: “We have much cloudy weather in this part of America. While in other portions of the country clear weather abounds, it is not so in this section, where much of my work has been done. This is a most fertile section—the beautiful lake region of N.Y.,—but it is for this reason a cloudy belt. It is far different in Colorado and California. In the latter place, at the Lick Observatory, I hear they have 300 clear nights in the year—a paradise for the astronomical observer! My former site, the Red House Observatory, Phelps, N.Y., is only six miles from Geneva, and hence in the same cloudy region.” Prof. Swift also referred to the subject of weather in a letter to me dated July 30, 1889, where he says: “I arrived home, after a five weeks’ visit to the Lick Observatory, on March 1, and have not had half a dozen first-class nights since—not in thirty years have I seen such prolonged rainy and cloudy weather.” Now Mr. Brooks has discovered 13 comets in 7 years, Prof. Swift has found 8 comets (1862-1890), and in addition to these has detected more than 700 new nebulæ, all of the latter since 1883. From this it