an inch thick, covered with characters, which, from the regular 

 and frequent occurrence of the same graphs, appear to be alpha- 

 betic. Prof. Pimentel, of Mexico, to whom some copies taken 

 from the tablets were submitted, expressed a strong hope that 

 these tablets would be speedily deciphered. The tablets are 

 supposed to be part of a library, and Don Antonio de Corruna 

 expresses the opinion that these tablets maybe the original of the 

 Popol Vuh, or sacred books of the Tzendal or Mayas. 



Mr. Crosswell exhibited a specimen of blind fish from the 

 Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. 



Mr. J. O. Broadhead presented a section from the trunk of a 

 Yucca from Mohave Desert, California. This plant is used quite 

 extensively in that region for the manufacture of paper. Dr. 

 Engelmann stated that he had described this plant in the Trans- 

 actions as T. brevifolia; the California papers speak of it erro- 

 neously as T. Draconis. 



Dr. Engelmann read the following note on 



THE TEMPERATURE OF THE WINTER OF 1877-8. 



As we had reason to expect from the high temperature of December, 

 January turned out mild, and February also had a much higher than the 

 average temperature. Thus the whole winter was a very mild one; but 

 it was not, as has been said, the mildest in the memory of man, for we 

 have had, since I began to make observations, two other winters even a 

 little milder than the past one. The mean temperature of March was 40°, 

 which is 5° higher than the average. Warmer Februaries (between 40° 

 and 44°) were observed in 1844 and 1845 (two years in succession), in 1848 

 and 1857; and it is interesting to note that in the three years first men- 

 tioned, March was also warmer than the average, but in the last year, 

 1857, it was 4 degrees colder than the average. As a rule, we may assume 

 that a warm March follows a warm winter. Our mean winter tempera- 

 ture is 33°. 4, and only three times it reached from 40° to 40°. 4, viz. in the 

 winter of 1844-5, 1875-6, and the past winter. Mark here that we have 

 had two very mild winters within three years. 



I wish to direct attention to the fact, that the winter temperature was 

 more even than usual ; that we had no sudden changes, such as occur 

 so often in our inland climate. 



The lowest temperature of December was 19°, of January 7°, of Febru- 

 ary 18°, all above zero; while the highest of December was 69°, of Janu- 

 ary 54°, of February 60°. 



On the first of the warm winters mentioned above, the temperature 

 never fell below + 10°, but in the second it fell to — 2°. 



