TIME-RECKONING. 1 1 1 



different customs, but tlie most common practice on shipboard is tr> 

 divide the 24 hours into six equal portions called " watches," and 

 these again into eight equal parts known as " bells," and numbered 

 from I to 8. Thus, the whole day is sub-divided into 48 equal parts. 

 The period. of time called a "watch" is four hours in length, the 

 reckoning being as follows : 



From noon to 4 p.m., the afternoon watch. 



'* 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., the dog watches (from 4 to 6 being the 



first dog watch ; from 6 to 8 Vjeing the second dog watch). 

 " 8 p.m. to midnight, the first (night) watch. 

 " midnight to 4 a.m., the middle (or second night) watch. 

 " 4 a.m. to 8 a.m., the morning watch. 

 " 8 a.m., to noon, the forenoon watch. 



This division into watches has a remarkable similarity to the prac- 

 tice followed by the Jews before the captivity. They divided the 

 night into three watches, the first lasting till midnight, the middle 

 watch lasting till cock-crow, the morning watch lasting until sunrise. 



From what has been set forth, it would appear that the sub- 

 divisions of the. day have not been less varied than the computations 

 of the day itself. Man has reckoned the day to begin at sunrise, at 

 sunset, at noon, at midnight, at twilight, at one hour before mid- 

 night, at six hours before midnight, and at six hours before noon. 

 He has divided it in a great variety of ways, viz. : First, into two, 

 four, twelve, twenty-four and one hundred and forty-four unequal 

 parts ; tiecond, into two, four, six, eight, twelve, twenty-four, forty- 

 eight, sixty, ninety-six and into one hundred equal paints, without 

 including the small sub-divisions of minutes and seconds. The com- 

 mon practice at present with most civilized nations is to divide the 

 day into two series of twelve hours each, a custom which corresponds 

 very closely with that followed by the ancient Egyptians long before 

 the Christian era. Thus, while we have made extraordinary advances 

 in all the arts and sciences, and in their application to everyday life, 

 we find ourselves clinging to a conventional and inconvenient mode 

 of computing time j one not materially difierent from that i^ractised 

 by the Egyptians perhaps thirty centuries ago — a custom which an- 

 swered every purpose when the world was young and its inhabited 

 portion of narrow limit, but now indefensible in theory and incon- 

 venieiit in practice. 



