YOL. XLIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. 321 



great way, though uncertain how far : from whence alone it will appear, that an 

 abatement must be made in the distance of about 30 degrees, which has been 

 supposed to be between the last known head-land of California towards the west, 

 and the farthest extremity of this new discovered land towards the east. 



adly, Capt. Behring having had the opportunity of observing an eclipse of the 

 moon at Kamschatka, concluded from the same, that that place lay much farther 

 off to the east, than is expressed in any map ; and that, to represent it truly, it 

 ought to be transferred into the other hemisphere, as its longitude is more than 

 180 degrees east from the isle of Ferro. For this reason. Captain Behring's new 

 land will be considerably approached to the last known part of California, and will 

 not indeed appear to be many degrees from it. 



What we have therefore still to hope is only, that in this unknown district 

 there may be found some strait, by which the Pacific Sea may freely communicate 

 with Hudson's Bay ; but if it shall appear that there is no such passage, it must 

 then be concluded, that whatever further progress may happen to be made through 

 Hudson's Bay, the opening at last must only be into the Frozen Sea, from 

 whence there could be no passing into the Pacific Ocean, but by the neighbour- 

 hood of Kamschatka ; and this way would doubtless be too long, and too danger- 

 ous, to be mastered in the course of one summer. 



It is much doubted whether the Russians will ever publish the particulars of 

 their discoveries, either such as have been made from Kamschatka towards Ame- 

 rica, or such as have been made on the northern coasts of Asia. And indeed it 



About this time Euler was honoured by the Academy of Sciences at Paris with the title of one of 

 its foreign members j after which, the academical prize was adjudged to 3 of his memoirs, concern- 

 ing the inequalities in the planetary motions. The two prize questions proposed by the same academy 

 for 1770 and 1772, were designed to obtain from the labours of astronomers a more perfect theory of 

 the moon. Euler, though blind, was a competitor for these prizes, and he carried them both. He 

 afterward revised his whole theory, and pursued his researches till he had constructed the new tables, 

 which appeared, with the great work, in 1772. On this occasion it is impossible to observe without 

 admiration, such immense calculations on the one hand, and on the other such ingenious method* 

 employed to abridge them, and to facilitate their application to the real motion of the moon. But 

 this admiration will become astonishment, when we consider at what period, and in what circum- 

 stances, all this was effected. It was at a time when our author was totally blind, and consequently 

 obliged to arrange all computations by the sole powers of his memory and his genius : it was when he 

 was embarrassed in his affairs by a dreadful fire, that had consumed great part of his substance, and 

 forced him to quit a ruined house, every comer of which was known to him by habit, which in some 

 measure supplied the want of sight. It was in these circumstances that Euler composed a work 

 which alone was sufficient to render his name immortal. 



Neither the infirmities of old age, nor the loss of sight, could quell the ardour of Euler's genius ; 

 he continued his profound researches till the day of his death, which happened suddenly, by an 

 apoplexy, in Sept. 1783, at 76 years of age. — Besides his voluminous separate publications, his 

 memoirs were the chief support of several of the Academies of Europe, and he left moreover an im- 

 mense collection of unpublished papers behind him. 

 VOL. IX. Tt 



