“The first recorded observations (of the comet of 1861, in Europe) were made on the evening of June 30, nineteen days after it had passed its point of nearest approach to the sun. I remember well observing it on the morning of July 2, 1861. For some reason I found it impossible to sleep that morning, and getting up about three (the exact hour I do not remember, but it must have been very early), I saw in the east what looked at first like the rays of an aurora borealis. But presently I noticed that these rays proceeded (unlike those of the aurora) from a bright center, which had been hidden by clouds when my observations began. I used at that time to keep a four-inch telescope, mounted on a three-legged stand, in my bedroom. This I had quickly ready for action (noting that the object, owing to the approach of sunrise, was getting fainter every minute), and turning it on the comet, I drew a picture of the nucleus and coma, so closely resembling that which appeared a week or two later in the _Illustrated London News_, that I might have supposed my picture had been surreptitiously sent to the office of the _Illustrated_, had I not found it resting just where I had put it in my scientific portfolio.” Returning to the discussion of Halley’s comet, it was seen on May 21, at 4.30 A.M., by Professor Evershed, (then director of the Kodaikanal Observatory, Southern India), appearing no broader than on May 18, but fainter. He described it as passing centrally through the square of Pegasus, which was nearly filled with the faint light. The tail could be traced, as before, right up to the Milky Way. The star ε Pegasi was nearly in the center of the band of light, and the star α Aquilæ near its southern edge. This was the last observation Professor Evershed made before dawn. He considered it remarkable that the tail of the comet should have remained visible in the morning sky as a narrow band of light, nearly two days after the head of the comet had passed to the other side of the sun. He suggested that this might be due to the fact that the tail may have been strongly curved and very broad in the direction of the comet’s motion, although narrow and straight in the direction at right angles thereto. If so, the passage of the earth through the tail, if it occurred at all, must have been delayed one or two days and probably occupied more time than a single day. There is some doubt whether the tail did actually touch the earth, for observations of its position in the sky on May 11 and 15 show that its axis was inclined very considerably northward from the direction of the radius vector, a straight line drawn from the nucleus of the comet to the sun of the comet.