the heading of pages, such as the names of the months and days,
the different planets, constellations, and fixed stars, and the
phenomena of angle and time. They have even an index of their own
in which the titles of the different articles are given in
Russian. This explanation occupies, in all, seventy-five pages--
more than double that taken up by the original explanation.

One of the first considerations which strikes us in comparing
these multitudinous publications is the confusion which must arise
from the use of so many meridians. If each of these southern
nations, the Spanish and Portuguese for instance, actually use a
meridian of their own, the practice must lead to great confusion.
If their navigators do not do so but refer their longitudes to the
meridian of Greenwich, then their almanacs must be as good as
useless. They would find it far better to buy an ephemeris
referred to the meridian of Greenwich than to attempt to use their
own The northern nations, I think, have all begun to refer to the
meridian of Greenwich, and the same thing is happily true of our
own marine. We may, therefore, hope that all commercial nations
will, before long, refer their longitudes to one and the same
meridian, and the resulting confusion be thus avoided.

The preparation of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac was
commenced in 1849, under the superintendence of the late Rear-
Admiral, then Lieutenant, Charles Henry Davis. The first volume to
be issued was that for the year 1855. Both in the preparation of
that work and in the connected work of mapping the country, the
question of the meridian to be adopted was one of the first
importance, and received great attention from Admiral Davis, who
made an able report on the subject. Our situation was in some