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days. The subject was referred to the head of the church at St. Petersburg, and finally to Struve, the director of the Pulkowa Observatory, the national astronomical institution of the empire. Struve made a report in favor of the American reckoning, and the change to it was duly carried out.

At the present time custom prescribes for the date line the meridian opposite that of Greenwich. This passes through the Pacific Ocean, and in its course crosses very little land—only the northeastern corner of Asia and, perhaps, some of the Fiji Islands. This fortunate circumstance prevents a serious inconvenience which might arise if the date line passed through the interior of a country. In this case the people of one city might have their time a day different from those of a neighbouring city across the line. It is even conceivable that residents on two sides of the same street would have different days for Sunday. But being in the ocean, no such inconvenience follows. The date line is not necessarily a meridian of the earth, but may deviate from one side to the other in order to prevent the inconvenience we have described. Thus the inhabitants of Chatham Island have the same time as that of the neighbouring island of New Zealand, although the meridian of 180° from Greenwich runs between them.