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    — . months before . Instead of whirling along the summit of an embankment , or through a horizontal well miles deep , in a machine that always reminded me of a disjointed dragon , at the rate of some fifty miles an hour , here I was leisurely swaying to and fro on the back of the slowest beast that man has ever tamed , in the midst of a crowd loosely scattered over the country , some on foot , some ii ^ the saddle—not seekiug to keep any determinate track , but following a -general direction by the light of the stars , which shine with warm beneficence overhead . There is no sound to attract the ear , save the measured tread of the caravan , the occasional ' Isa ! Isa ! ' of the drivers , the hasty wrench with which our camels snatch a mouthful of some ligneous plant that clings to the stony soil , the creaking of the baggage , or the whistling of the wind that comes moaning over the desert . These are truly moments in a man ' s life to remember ; and I shall ever look back to that solemn night-march over the desert , which my pen fails to describe , with sentiments of pleasurable awe . "

    A JEALOUS HUSBAND . * ' A little story may find its place here , as an apt illustration of the state of societv and manners in this out-of-the-way capital . A married woman preferred another man to her husband , and frankly confessed that her affections had strayed . Her lord , instead of flying into a passion , and killing her on the spot , thought a moment , and said , — "' I will consent to divorce you , if you will promise one thing . ' " ' What is that ? ' inquired the delighted wife . "' You must looloo to me only when I pass on the day of the celebration of your nuptials with the other man . '

    Now it is the custom for women , under such circumstances , to looloo ( that is , salute with a peculiar cry ) any handsome male passer-by . However , the woman promised , the divorce took place , and the lover was soon promoted into a second lmsband . On the day of the wedding , however , the man who had exacted the promise passed by the camel on which the bride was riding , and saluted hex , as is the custom , with the discharge of his firelock . Upon this she remembered , and looloed to him . The new bridegroom , enraged at this marked preference , noticing that she had not greeted any one else , and thinking possibly that he was playing

    ¦ fch e part of a dupe , instantly fell upon his bride and slew her . He had scarcely done so when the brothers of the woman came up and shot him down ; so that the first husband compassed ample vengeance without endangering himself in the slightest degree . This is an instance of Arab cunning . " ~ No extract can convey anything like the picture here given of African character , especially in its barbarian aspects o £ sensuality , lying-, and fanaticism , because the picture is painted by a series of minute touches , jotted down as experience furnished them . We must send our readers to the work itself .

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    CLAVEKSTON " . Claverston : a Tale . By Charles Mitchell Charles , Author of Hamon and Gatar . Saunders and Otley . There is a certain directness and onrushing vehemence in this story which carries the reader to the end ; but in adopting " melodrama and excitement as essential to a story of the duplex life we are at present living , " Mr . Charles has made a mistake . When a man writes melodramatic novels and believes in them—believes in his blue lire and fierce lia ! ha ' s!—believes that his villains are portraits of human nature , and that his rant is passion—lie has a reasonable chance of success ; for there is something in conviction which suffuses a work with its own glow , and makes it interesting . All this is lost when the writer adopts melodramo and excitement de fjaicte cle caeur , or as a calculated " effect , " thus ' * writing down" to what he believes to bo the taste of the public . JSTo man should write down to any taste ; lie lowers himself , and does not effect his object . Throughout this tale of Claverston we see the strings and the man who pulls them ; were it less well written it would be intolerable , for tho story is as improbable us it is hackneyed , and the characters " are no characters at all . " A gloomy , mysterious father , Avho , out of very tenderness for his son , will not Bee him , lest ho should be tempted to betray the secret of his gloom—which is nothing less than the old story of a murder committed in jealousy—is a fit and proper person for mclodrame , but somehow here he is not ; terrible . Mr . Charles does not himself believe in him ! tii . v / s mcjlcrc , < fr . The " excitement" which is at times produced in the course of this talc by means of drowning , house-breaking , abduction , and footpads , is done in tho most deliberate manner—introduced for the sake of " exciting , " hut having no sort of bearing on the course of the story , and px * oducing more disappointment than pleasure . Mr . Charles is capable of far higher things . lie writes well ; he has ideas ; ho lias cnthusiusm . Let him ins toad of " writing down , " writo up to his highest ideal , and ho will produce a very different impression .

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    T 11 K COMKTH . The Cornels : < x . Descriptive Treatise upon those ' . Undies , with a Condensed Account of the numerous modern . Discoveries respecting thorn , liy >\ . RuhncII Hind . «)' . W . J * arkor and Son . It was an excellent idea to make the Comofs tho subject of a small volume apart ; for , in I realises on Astronomy , they usually form but si small episodo , and the rapid advances of knowledge in this direction have rendered fuller treatment desirable . Mr . Russell Hind in an astronomer , and ono who has clear conceptions of what is needed in a popular treatiso—which astronomers seldom have . 11 o has brought togolner 11 * 1 small compass tho scattered materials accessible only to patient research : and hn » produced a volume of very decided usefulness and interest .

    Ihi begins with a , description of what Cornels sire , their number , duni-I ion of visibility , lenglhof their apparent tracks , their nuclei and tails , and their apparent dimensions . Vrvy iitrttnietivo it is to note the different results of the two modes of viewing theso bodies the theological and the positive . " The historians of these iigen , in speaking of comets , frequently describe them an of ' horrible aspect , ' or us celestial monsters of prodigious magnitude , fearful and terrible , tstar . s . While they wen ; beheld with huch feelings of < li-tv . ul and supcistition , it , will lninlly be , expected Unit , liiuiiy useful accounts of their movements amount the Htiu-H would bo transmitted to us , and it accordingly happens

    that but very little information available to astronomers at the present day , is to be found in European chronicles . The Chinese astronomers , though they looKea upon comets without any fears of their malignant agencies , had a very fanciful opinion respecting them , which nevertheless led to the frequent observation fit tne position of these bodies in the heavens , the results of which have been found most valuable in modern times . " The dread which they inspired prevented observation , and from the want ; of this observation the mystery and dread were kept up ! Mr . Russell Hind calculates that something like 4000 comets must have approached the sun within the orbit of Mars , since the commencement of the Christian Era .

    " When a comet is conspicuous to the naked eye , it consists , in nearly every case , of a roundish and more or less condensed mass of nebulous matter , termed the head , from which issues , in a direction opposite to that of the sun , a train of a lighter kind of nebulosity , called the tail . Sometimes the centre of the he « d ^ occupied by a starlike point or nucleus ; at others by a well-defined planetary disk , while in by far the greater number of instances , it exhibits nothing more than a higher degree of condensation of the nebulous matter , which a lways has a confused appearance in the telescope . Occasionally a low magnifying power will afford evidence of the existence of a stellar nucleus , but , on applying higher magnifiers , this appearance vanishes , the light towards the centre being merely of greater to to

    intensity than at the borders , without coming up suddenly a point , so as resemble a star . Telescopic comets are generally destitute of a tail , and appear most commonly as roundish nebulosities , strongly condensed towards the centre , but without any decided nucleus . There are exceptions , however , to this rule , as we shall presently find . The same comet may put on at different times of its visibility , every variety of figure and general appearance , from the dim nebulous spot hardly discernible in the telescope to the ' cometa terribilis / ' horrendse magnitudinis , ' the tailed and hairy stars which spread so much alarm amongst our forefathers , before science showed the groundlessness of such fears . These changes in the aspect of the same comet , are caused by variation in its distance from the earth and sun , by its position in respect to the ' former , and possibly also in some degree by actual change

    in the form of the comet itself . " The envelope , mentioned by astronomers in their observations o f large comets , consists of a border of light surrounding the head on the side near the sun , and passing round in each direction , so as to form the commencement of the tail . " The Coma is the nebulosity which surrounds a highly condensed or planetary nucleus . " Some comets have attained such an extraordinary degree of splendour , as to be distinctly visible at noonday , or to render the stars dim by contrast , and cast sensible shadows at night . " Of the comets' tails he

    says" Though , as we have seen , the nuclei of cornets have occasionally attained so great a degree of brig htness as to be discernible in full daylight , or to cast shadows at night , it is their tails or trains which give them so imposing an appearance in the heavens , and which have excited so much astonishment in all ages . But very few of the brighter comets have been observed without an appendage of this kind , though the telescopic class rarely appear otherwise than as roundish nebulosities . In some comets the tail has been observed as n long narrow ray of light , somewhat brighter near the head , and gradually fading away into darkness . In others a dark line has divided it into two branches , and instances are on record where two tails , evidently distinct from each other , have been remarked . Other comets have bushy , fan-shaped tails , compared by the ancient observers to tho train of a peacock . Not unfrequently the appearance of the tail will vary greatly on successive evenings , or even during the same night .

    "As a general rule , the tail of a comet is turned from the sun , forming a prolongation of the radius vector , or of the line joining the sun and comet . # * # # * " It would lead us far beyond the limits of the present work , wcro wo to particularize all tho varied phenomena which have been observed in the tails of comets , hut there is one singular appearance in the trains of great comets which we must not pass over in silence . It consists of apparent vibrations or coruscations , similar to the pulsations peculiar to the Aurora Horealis . These vibrations commence at the head , and appear to traverse the whole length of the tail in si few seconds of

    time . Tho cause was long supposed to be connected with the nature of the comet itself , but Olbers pointed out that such appearances could only be attributed to tho effects of our own atmosphere . The reason is this : the various portions of the tail of a large comet must often he situated at widely different distniiccn from the earth , so that it will frequently happen that light would require several minutes longer to reach us from the extremity of the . tail than from the end near the nucleus . Hence , if the coruscation were caused by some electrical emanation from the head of the comet , travelling along tho tail , even if it occupied only ono second in passing over the whole distance , several minute , ' ; must necessarily elapso before we could see it reach the end of tho tail . This is contrary to observation ,

    the pulsation being almost instantaneous . Tho length of these tails is thus estimated - " The tails of comets in souk ; cases extend only 11 few hundred thousand miles from the nucleus , while in others they are projected to the astonishing distance of one hundred or one hundred and fifty millions of miles , or even more . The train of the first comet of 1817 was 5 , ()() 0 , <) 0 <) miles in length ; of the beautiful comet of 1744 , 10 , 000 , 000 ; of the comet of 17 Gi > , about 40 , 000 , 000 . The third of 1018 liad a tail more than 50 , 000 , 000 miles in length , when it crossed the plane of the earth ' s orbit about the 25 th of November , arid it was subsequently of greater extent . The great comets of l (> 80 and 1811 had trains considerably more tlntn 100 , 000 , 000 miles long ; and . the second of the lutteryeur was accompanied by 11 tail l ; $ 0 , 000 , 000 miles in length . I ' ven these comets , however , were surpassed by the grand one which attracted so much attention in 1 H 13 , and which exhibited 11 brilliant train that on different dates was found to attain the enormous distanced of

    J 50 , 180 , 111 id 200 millions of miles from the head ! If such a comet ; had been 111 the plane of the ecliptic , and close to tho sun , the train would have ex fended fur beyond the orbits of the l'lurlli and Mars , terminating amongst those of the minor planets . Yet this wonderful n [> p < m < liigo wjih formed in less than three weekn . " What is said on ( heir physical constitution , and the danger our planet runs , is worth extracting . " Concerning the physical constitution of conicta wo have but 11 very imperfect knowledge lit present . Sir John Ilersehcl regards thom aa imishoh of thin vapour ,

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    330 T H E LEADER . [ Saturday ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 2, 1853, page 330, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1980/page/18/