The
first month of winter found itself in autumn, the first month of
spring in the middle of winter, and so on.
"Rather a lubberly sort of log, that," remarked Willis.
"This confusion became, with time, more and more embarrassing. Another
evil was, likewise, eventually to be apprehended, for it was seen
that, on the expiring of fourteen hundred and sixty revolutions of the
earth round the sun, fourteen hundred and sixty-one civil years would
be counted."
"But where would have been the evil?"
"All relations between the dates and the seasons would have been
obliterated, astronomical calculations would have become inaccurate,
and the calendar virtually useless."
"Well, Willis, you that are so fertile in ideas, what would you have
done in such a case?" inquired Jack.
"I! Why I scarcely know--perhaps run out a fresh cable and commenced a
new log."
"Your remedy," continued Wolston, "might, perhaps, have obviated the
difficulty; but Julius Caesar thought of another that answered the
purpose equally well. It was simply to add to every fourth civil year
an additional day, making it to consist of three hundred and sixty-six
instead of three hundred and sixty-five, This supplementary day was
given to the month of February."
"Why February?"
"Because February, at that time, was reckoned the last month of the
year.
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