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- 

 evei', 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 Behriug's 

 Strait ; while the one suggested by the writer is to the west in the 

 same locality. Either 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 1 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. 



