PERRINE'S COMET.

The Harvard Observatory has received despatches from the Lick Observatory in California stating that C. D. Perine on Nov. 17 discovered a comet in the constellation Virgo. The comet has increased steadily in brightness being now of about the fourth magnitude. Being below the equator and travelling southward, it is rather unfavorably situated for observation. No observations have as yet been taken at the Observatory, but from the data at hand, it may be said, speaking roughly, that the comet can be seen a little before sunrise in the constellation Libra, several degrees northwest of the bright reddish star Autares in Scorpio. A photograph taken at the Lick observatory December 8, by A. L. Colton, shows the tail to be composed of one long streamer and several short ones. The principal streamer is much curved. The comet may now be seen with the naked eye, but is more easily found through a field glass.

Despatches from the Smith Observatory, Geneva, N. Y., announce the discovery by W. R. Brooks, on November 23, of another comet in the constellation Hydra. Its direction is northward.