204 
machinery, as exhibited in the adjustable sclerotic plates of 
the eye, enabling this ancient animal to adapt the refined 
mechanism of vision to the varying degrees of light and dis- 
tance, then in the muddy waters of the Liassic sea of England 
and other parts of Europe, as now by the eyes of owls, 
eagles and diving birds. 
This animal was contemporary with the Plesiosaurus and 
Teliosaurus, which make a trio of perfect construction, which 
certainly exhibits no nearer relation to mere primitive Proto- 
plasm, than the highest expression of animal life in the 
present day. I trust this instructive fossil may form the 
nucleus of a collection of fossil remains, that will constitute 
the basis of the most effective adjuncts to popular education, 
commensurate with the future grandeur and progress of the 
City of New York. 
The following paper was read, 
Notes on the Meteorology of the Month of March, 1871. 
By Pror. O. W. Morris. 
The temperature of March was in the reverse order of the 
old proverb, “If March comes in like a lion, it will go out 
like a lamb,” for the lamb came at the beginning, and the 
lion in the last part. 
On the 1st the thermometer was at 405°, on the 8d at 59°, 
on the 4th 38°5°, and on the 5th 35°. The mean on the 3d 
was 538°83°, the warmest of the month. The thermometer 
kept above 40° till the 13th, and the mean, above 40° till the 
16th, when it was 38-4’, it then went above 40° and kept so 
till the 28th, when was the lowest mean 86°1°. 
The maximum was on the 8d, 59° and the minimum on 
the 29th, 33°, a range of 26°. The mean for the month was 
44°73°, which was warmer than any other March in 10 years, 
except that of 1865, which was ‘89° warmer only. 
The mean of the Barometer was 29°857 inches on the Ist. 
On the 20th, it attained its maximum, 80-211 inches, and its 
minimum on the 27th, 29318 inches, both at 7 A. M., 
