320 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



July. Contrary to all expectations or precedent, in July of 

 that year there was in Vermont a fall of snow ! This appar- 

 ently remarkable knowledge of the probabilities of the weather 

 made Prof. Thompson famous as a weather prophet, and 

 greatly increased the sale of his almanacs. It should be add- 

 ed that Prof. Thompson made constant use of such meteoro- 

 logical instruments as he could obtain, and that he was one of 

 the first in his State to study the weather in a careful and 

 scientific manner. 



Mr. Thompson was graduated from the University of Ver- 

 mont in 1823, at the advanced age of twenty-seven years, and 

 immediately turned his attention to making known the natural 

 and civil features and history of his native State to its own in- 

 habitants and to the world beyond its borders, which was the 

 chief occupation of his life. Within a year his first publica- 

 tion in this field, a Gazetteer of Vermont, appeared at Mont- 

 pelier. His first bound volume was an arithmetic, published 

 in 1826, which had a general sale through the State. While 

 serving as principal of an academy in Canada, he issued a 

 geography and map of Canada for schools, which passed 

 through several editions. In 1832 Mr. Thompson edited and 

 was the chief contributor to the Green Mountain Repository, 

 a monthly magazine published for about a year at Burling- 

 ton. In the following year appeared his History of Vermont 

 from its earliest settlement to the close of the year 1832. 



Taking up the study of theology and supporting himself 

 in part by teaching in the Vermont Episcopal Institute and 

 elsewhere, he was prepared for orders, and became a deacon 

 in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1836. He preached 

 from time to time in various parishes of northern Vermont 

 and New York, and usually supplied the pulpit of St. Paul's 

 Church, Burlington, during the illness or absence of the rector. 

 His health not being good enough to allow of his undertaking 

 the labours of a parish, and being a man of " deep and un- 

 conquerable modesty of spirit," he never advanced to the 

 priesthood. 



His earlier works aroused in him a desire to issue some- 

 thing larger and fuller in the same line, and for many years he 

 industriously collected from various " oldest inhabitants " and 

 scattered records facts relating to the history, geography, and 

 natural resources of Vermont. From 1838 to 1842 he devoted 



