SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS. 49 



EEMAE.KS ON A UiNI\^ERSAL PRIME MERIDIAN, BY DON JUAN 

 PASTORIN, LIEUT.-COMMANDER OF THE SPANISH NAVY. 



Transmitted hij the British Minister at Madrid throuffh the Colonial Office hy des- 

 patch, 13th March, 188-2, to His Excellency the Governor-General. The 

 communication is in the form of a preface to a translation and re-publication 

 in the Spanish language, at the office of " Revista-General de Marina," of 

 the se i}e7-al papers on Time-reckoning and a common Prime Aleridian, pub- 

 lished by the Canadian Institute (Toronto). 



(translation.) 

 It has always seemed to nie 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, shoiild 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 diffei-ent citations those of the two observatories, 

 the ancient one and the present one), Ferrol, (.-'artagena, 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-da}", 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 Rio de Janeiro ; and I do not cite Washington because the authori- 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 ai'ranged upon 

 the Mercator projection. 



Why should there be this intolerable multiplicity 1 



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- 

 petency 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 Jos6 Emilio de Santos, Frannisco de Paula Marquez» 

 Franwisco Chacon y Orta, Antonio Aquilary Vela, Carlos Ibanez, Eduardo Benot and Jose 

 Morer. 



