NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 73 



48-03 inches, in 1877. The lowest point to which the thermometer 

 fell was 10° on the 2-ith December last, and the highest in the 

 shade 89° on the 28th June, as against 13° on the 27th February, 

 and 79° on the 16th June, of 1877, the average temperature being 

 about equal for each year. 



It may be interesting to notice a prediction made to me by an 

 old o-entleman in Kilmarnock when I was there at the end of 

 February last year. On the previous week a peculiar fog or mist 

 had settled down over the town, wdiich my friend assured me was 

 a sign that we would have a very dry summer, as he recollected 

 the same phenomenon occurring before the dry year of 1826. 



The above record proves this weather prophet to be a keen 

 observer of nature, and teaches us that we may derive benefit 

 from everyday signs if we can read them aright. 



March 25th, 1879. 



Mr. John A. Harvie-Brown, F.Z.S., Vice-President, in the 

 chair. 



Messrs. R. Wilson Thorn and St. John Vincent Day were 

 elected ordinary members. 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



Mr. James Ooutts exhibited specimens of sponges from the 

 Greensand, and various fossils from the Carboniferous and Liassic 

 formations in the South of England, on which Mr. John Young, 

 F.G.S., made some descriptive remarks. 



PAPERS READ. 



I. — Notes and Observations of Adventitious Structures on Crinoid 

 Stems. By a Corresponding Member. Communicated by 

 Mr. John Young, F.G.S. 



[Third Paper.] 



A long engagement, often renewed, renders the remarks which 

 follow in some degree hallowed; and it would be a relief, while 

 the pen can still be wielded, to advance or complete the old self- 

 imposed compact, in continuation of previous observations in these 

 pages — for nature presents nothing in itself frivolous. 



