n, curving slightly downwards, and terminating in a broad brush
of faint light, the curvature of which diminished till it was nearly
straight at the end. The portion of the tail next the comet appeared
three or four tunes as bright as the most luminous portion of the milky
way, and what struck me as a singular feature was that its upper margin,
from the nucleus to very near the extremity, was clearly and almost
sharply defined, while the lower side gradually shaded off into
obscurity. Directly it rose above the ridge of the hill, I said to my
men, "See, it's not a fire, it's a bintang ber-ekor" ("tailed-star," the
Malay idiom for a comet). "So it is," said they; and all declared that
they had often heard tell of such, but had never seen one till now. I
had no telescope with me, nor any instrument at hand, but I estimated
the length of the tail at about 20 deg., and the width, towards the
extremity, about 4 deg. or 5 deg..

The whole of the next day we were obliged to stop near the village of
Tidore, owing to a strong wind right in our teeth. The country was all
cultivated, and I in vain searched for any insects worth capturing. One
of my men went out to shoot, but returned home without a single bird. At
sunset, the wind having dropped, we quitted Tidore, and reached the
next island, March, where we stayed till morning. The comet was again
visible, but not nearly so brilliant, being partly obscured by clouds;
and dimmed by the light of the new moon. We then rowed across to the
island of Motir, which is so surrounded with coral-reefs that it is
dangerous to approach. These are perfectly flat, and are only covered at
high water, ending in craggy vertical walls of coral in very deep water.
When there is a little wind, it is dangerous to come near these rocks;
but luckily it was quite smooth, so we moored to their edge, while the
men crawled over the reef to the land, to make; a fire and cook our
dinner-the boat having no accommodation for more than heating water for
my morning and evening coffee. We then rowed along the edge of the reef
to the end of the island, and were glad to get a nice westerly breeze,
which carried us over the strait to the island of Makian, where we
arrived about 8 P.M, The sky was quite clear, and though the moon shone
brightly, the comet appeared with quite as much splendour as when we
first saw it.

The coasts of these small islands are very different according to their
geological formation. The v