148 LONGITUDE AND TIME-RECKONING. 
advantage of having some common international arrangement as to a common 
meridian for geographical purposes at least.” 
It is somewhat remarkable that the important query of M. de 
Beaumont is one which, without the slightest idea that it had been 
asked by him, I have anticipated by my reply. The coincidence, how- 
ever, is less strange, that we have arrived substantially at the same 
conclusions. A Behring’s Strait meridian is almost the only one 
which, by its position, may be taken as the initial meridian, on 
account of its natural and individual character. 
It is not a little satisfactory to discover that the views which I 
have expressed are confirmed in the main by so distinguished an 
authority. What difference exists is in matters of detail. M. de 
Beaumont proposes that the common meridian should be established 
150° west of Ferro, or nearly 180° from a meridian passing through 
or at no great distance from Copenhagen, Leipsic, Venice and Rome. 
This would throw the initial meridian a little to the east of Behring’s 
Strait ; while the one suggested by the writer is to the west in the 
same locality. Hither would perfectly serve the desired purpose. 
The only question remaining is, which of the two would least interfere 
with present practices ; least disarrange charts, tables and nautical 
nomenclature ; which would most accommodate and best satisfy the 
greatest number of those who use and are governed by the maps 
and forms and astronomical almanacs now in use ;—in fact, which of 
the two lines would most readily meet with general concurrence? I 
think the answer is conclusive. The anti-meridian of the one pro- 
posed by M. de Beaumont, passes through Copenhagen—a meridian 
recognized probably by less than one per cent. of ocean-going vessels ; 
while the anti-meridian of the line advocated in this paper is in use 
for reckoning longitude by at least 72 per cent. of the floating 
tonnage of the world. 
The proposal of the President of the Geographical Society of 
Geneva, supported as it is by M. E. Cortambert and other con- 
tinental geographers, advances the settlement of an extremely em- 
barrassing question, and encourages the hope that at no distant day 
there may be an international arrangement, through which mankind 
may secure the advantages of a common first meridian for geographical, 
chronometrical and all other general purposes ; one that in its actual 
and in its astronomical sense will be indeed cosmopolitan. 
