44 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



stationed in different Parts of the East Indies, etc.," to observe 

 the transit; that the French king and other powers had taken 

 similar action, the comparison of observations taken in different 

 parts of the earth being important ; that Prof. Winthrop had 

 offered to go to Newfoundland for the same purpose ; and he 

 therefore recommended that the House furnish the professor 

 transportation on the province sloop, which would be sent to 

 Penobscot a little before the time of the transit. The Hous*e 

 of Representatives immediately passed a vote in accordance 

 with this suggestion. 



The sloop with Prof. Winthrop on board sailed from Boston 

 May 9th, and reached St. John's thirteen days later. The pro- 

 fessor took with him the college instruments and two members 

 of the senior class. Some difficulty was met with in finding a 

 suitable station, but at last a position was taken on a consider- 

 able elevation, which was afterward named Venus Hill. The 

 work of setting up the clock and other instruments was made 

 arduous by persecution from swarms of bloodthirsty insects, 

 which had possession of the hill. June 6th was the day of the 

 transit, and the weather proved favourable. In every part of 

 America except Labrador the phenomenon began before sun- 

 rise. At St. John's the sun rose at 4 h. 18 m., with Venus upon 

 its disk, from which the planet passed off at 5 h. 6 m. On his 

 return Prof. Winthrop published an account of his voyage and 

 his observations. 



When the transit of June 3, 1769, was approaching he de- 

 livered two lectures on the coming phenomenon, which were 

 published. Dr. Maskelyne, then astronomer royal of England, 

 desired that Prof. Winthrop should go to the neighbourhood 

 of Lake Superior, where the whole of this transit would be 

 visible, but his health would not admit of this. Accordingly, 

 he saw only the beginning of the passage, as at Cambridge the 

 sun set before it was finished. Prof. Winthrop observed the 

 transit of Mercury January 20, 1763, and prepared an account 

 of it for the Memoirs of the American Academy of Sciences 

 (vol. i, p. 57), of which society he was one of the founders. 



As a mathematician and astronomer Prof. Winthrop had 

 no equal in the American colonies, and his fellowship of the 

 Royal Society, together with the degree of LL. D. which he 

 received from the University of Edinburgh in 1771, attests his 

 reputation in the mother country. Prof. Levering states that 



