SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS. 49 
REMARKS ON A UNIVERSAL PRIME MERIDIAN, BY DON JUAN 
PASTORIN, LIEUT.-COMMANDER OF THE SPANISH NAVY. 
Transmitted by the British Minister at Madrid through the Colonial Office by des- 
patch, 13th March, 1882, to His Laucellency the Governor-General. The 
communication is in the form of a preface to a translation and re-publication 
in the Spanish language, at the ojfice of ‘* Revista-General de Marina,” of 
the several papers on Time-reckoning and a common Prime Meridian, pub- 
lished by the Canadian Institute ( Toronto ). 
(TRANSLATION.) 
It has always seemed to me very lamentable that there should 
exist such a multiplicity of Meridians, and, while in the classes of 
the Naval College I could not understand why the unscientific plu- 
rality of our reckonings of longitude, condemned openly by both the 
Professors and the books we studied, should be persisted in. Spain 
has counted the longitude from the Meridian of the Straits of Gib- 
raltar, Toledo, the ancient College of Marine Guardo de Cadiz, San 
Fernando (in two different citations those of the two observatories, 
the ancient one and the present one), Ferrol, Vartugena, Plaza 
Mayor of Madrid, observatory of the same capital, Coimbra, Lis- 
bon (in three distinct places corresponding to the successive observa- 
tories), the Cathedral of Manilla, the Island of Hierro (in different 
points, some doubtful)—and, to-day, it is proposed heedlessly to give 
another Meridian of reference. 
The marine authorities of the most advanced countries of the world 
count the time by Greenwich, Paris, San Fernando, Naples, Chris- 
tiania, Island of Hierro, Pulkova, Stockholm, Lisbon, Copenhagen, 
Rio de Janeiro’; and [ do not cite Washington because the authori- 
ties of the great Republic of North America, setting aside small 
ideas and national jealousy, use for the purposes of navigation the 
time of Greenwich. 
It is therefore a natural consequence that the geographer in exam- 
ining different charts and in reducing one Meridian to another, finds 
himself surrounded with difficulties, and in some cases impossibili- 
ties, for the reduction is impracticable on maps not arranged upon 
the Mercator projection. 
Why should there be this intolerable multiplicity ? 
Several times it has been attempted to do away with it, but with- 
out success. In 1869, Spain appointed a Commission to propose 
rules respecting our maps and charts; but notwithstanding the com- 
-peteney of the individuals who composed it,* the Commission ceased 
its labours without even giving a reason why nothing had been done. 
International Congresses have met in Antwerp and in Paris, but 
have not come to any decision respecting geographical maps ; nor are 
* The Commission was composed of José Emilio de Santos, Francisco de Paula Marquez 
Franvisco Chacon y Orta, Antonio Aquilary Vela, Carlos Ibanez, Eduardo Benot and Jose 
Morer. 
