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from the deep hlence, that my aiioclates had yet feen 
nothing of V enus. 
As the contads are reckoned to be one of the moft 
ell'ential articles relative to this phaanomenon, it is 
material, before we fet down their times, to give a 
particular account of the manner in which each ob- 
lerver judged of them, and the other circumffances 
attending them. 
Mr. Rittenhouse’s Account of the Contacts* 
“.At 2'' 1 1' 39''' per clock, the Reverend Mr* 
“ Barton, of Lancader, who affided me at the te- 
“ lefcope, on receiving my fignal, as had been 
agreed, indantaneoudy communicated it, by wav- 
“ ing a handkerchief, to the counters at the window^ 
“ who, walking foftly to the clock, counting as they 
“ went alongj .noted down their times feparately, 
“ agreeing to the fame fecond* And three feconds 
“ fooner than this, to the bed of my judgment, was 
“ the time when the lead impredion made by Venus 
“ on the Sun’s limb could be feen through my te- 
lefcope. 
“ When the Planet had advanced about one third 
“ of her diameter on the Sun, as I was deadily 
“ viewing its progrefs, my fight was fuddenly at- 
“ traded by a beam of light, which broke through 
“ on that dde of Venus yet off the Sun. Its figure 
“ was that of a broad-bafed pyramid ; fituated at 
. “ about 40 or 45 degrees on the limb of Venus, 
from a line pafiing through her center and the 
“ Sun’s 
