It will probably have occurred to the reader that, since day and night are ceaselessly chasing each other round the globe, it must be necessary to choose some point of beginning, in order to keep the regular succession of the days of the week. The necessity for this is evident as soon as we reflect that what is sunrise at one place on the earth, is sunset for a place situated half-way round, on the other side. To understand this it will be better, perhaps, to consider the phenomena of noon at various places. It is noon at any place when the sun is on the meridian of that place. But we have seen that every place has its own meridian; consequently, since the sun cannot be on the meridian of more than one place at a time, each different place (reckoning east and west, for, of course, all places lying exactly north or south of one another have the same meridian), must have its own local noontime. Since the sun appears to move round the earth from east to west, it will arrive at the meridian of a place lying east of us sooner than at our meridian, and it will arrive at our meridian sooner than at that of a place lying west of us. Thus, when it is noon at Greenwich, it is about 7 o'clock A.M., or five hours before noon, at New York, because the angular distance westward round the earth's surface from Greenwich to New York is, in round numbers, 75°, which corresponds with five hours of time, there being 150 to every hour. At the same moment it will be 5 o'clock P.M., or five hours after noon, at Cashmere, because Cashmere lies 75° east of Greenwich. That is to say, the sun crosses the meridian of Cashmere five hours before it reaches the meridian of Greenwich, and it crosses the meridian of Greenwich five hours before it reaches that of New York. At a place half-way round the circumference of the globe, _i.e._ 180° either east or west of Greenwich, it will be midnight at the same instant when it will be mid-day, or noon, at Greenwich. Now let us consider this for a moment.