Page:Chronologies and calendars (IA chronologiescale00macdrich).pdf/91



AVING now surveyed in detail the practical and historical eras, it will be convenient to sum up the principal points already considered. The reader will have noticed that there is a considerable variation in value as regards chronological terms—a 'year' meaning one thing to Jews, another to Christians, and having a different meaning for non-Christian nations. Even in our own country, there are several sorts of years—the civil, fiscal, leap, and common years. For instance, the civil year in Britain and her possessions begins 1st January at twelve o'clock midnight. The fiscal year may begin from any day, as the opening of a business, but our imperial fiscal year opens on 5th April, because the old style, plus the eleven omitted days, prevails in the British Exchequer.

. Again, the British, in common with the French, Germans, and the Americans, count a new day as beginning so soon as midnight of the previous one has struck. The modern astronomers in all countries take twelve o'clock noon (local time) as the starting point of the day.

. In the course of a transatlantic voyage, the word 'day' presents some curious meanings:—the 'average length of the day on a twenty-knot Atlantic liner, going