378 Reports and Procecdings— 
in millimetres, the movements of the upper stone from week to 
week, whilst a contiguous dotted line indicated the mean ranges 
of temperature. The rate of descent does not depend solely on 
the mean range. He gave the following comparison of rates of 
descent :— 
Average daily range Total mean descent Rate of descent in 
of temperature. in millim. inches per day. 
Summer, 184 days...... 14°-4 F 8 ‘00171 
Winter, 182 days ...... 8°-0 OF 00121 
Thus the changes are not altogether proportional to the ranges of 
temperature, being relatively higher in the winter months. In 
considering the influence of rain, he observed that its effects are to 
slightly increase the rate of descent by diminishing the coefficient 
of friction, and by lowering the temperature, both as being itself 
generally colder than the air on the ground surface, and also owing 
to evaporation. He likewise observed that the rate of descent was 
nearly doubled during the latter part of the winter, chiefly owing 
to the effects of snow. 
IJ.—June 20, 1888.—W. T. Blanford, LL.D., F.R.8., President, 
in the Chair.—The following communications were read :— 
1. “On the Occurrence of Marine Fossils in the Coal-measures 
of Fife.” By James W. Kirkby, Esq. Communicated by Prof. T. 
Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S. 
This paper recorded the discovery of fossils of good marine types 
in the Fifeshire Coal-measures. This coal-field is of limited extent, 
the Coal-measures dipping under the sea towards the east and south. 
The prevailing fossils are those characteristic of the Coal-measures 
in other districts, Anthracosia, Anthracomya, Anthracoptera, Spiror- 
bis, many fishes, and some few Amphibian remains. Lately a sink- 
ing was commenced in the Upper Red beds, below which, and just 
above a thin band of poor coal, a thick bed of dark shale was passed 
through, which proved to be tolerably fossiliferous. Lingula, Mureli- 
sonia, and two species of Bellerophon occurred. This horizon was 
subsequently proved elsewhere in the district, and furnished the 
following fossils from three localities, namely :—Sitrephodus sau- 
roides? Ag. (teeth and scales) ; Rhizodopsis, sp. (scales) ; Paleeoniscid 
scales; Diplodus gibbosus, Ag.; Mesodomodus, sp. n.; Petalodus 
Hastingsia ; Discites rotifer ? Salt.; Discites, sp. (with longitudinal 
ribs) ; Discites, sp. (smooth); Orthoceras attenuatum? Flem.; Lel- 
lerophon Urii, Flem.; Murchisonia (Aclisma) striatula, De Kon. ; 
Sanguinolites, sp.;  Productus semireticulatus, var. Martini, Sow. ; 
Discina nitida, Phill.; Lingula mytiloides, Sow.; Lingula squaini- 
formis ; Crinoid stems (Actinocrinus ?) ; Plant-remains (obscure). 
Reference was then made to the occurrence of similar fossils in the 
same formation elsewhere, and particularly in the West of Scotland, 
North of England, and Lancashire. The author concluded, from 
the frequency of the beds containing true marine remains, that the 
Coal-measures were formed in low-lying areas; and that, when the 
land was slightly depressed, at times the waters of the sea had 
