METEOROLOGICAL NOTES. 
139 
the limits of the set of beds I intend to describe under the 
head of the Middle Lias, though a term such as “ Upper 
Middle Lias” might be preferable, and is indeed at times 
used. 
There is not much difficulty in fixing the upward limit of 
the Middle Lias, although what I shall in this paper call the 
Transition Bed has been variously named, and variously 
classed, and sometimes ignored. Mr. Day* calls this bed the 
Pleurotomaricc Bed, as it exists in Dorsetshire. In York¬ 
shire its equivalent has been described by Messrs. Tate 
and Blake, under the name of the Zone of Ammonites 
annulatus, and in the Midland Counties we commonly call it 
the Transition Bed, a name first used by Mr. E. A. Walford, 
F.G.S.f There is a decided mixing of Middle and Upper 
Lias fossils, and the ammonites in this bed are almost entirely 
Upper Lias; nevertheless there is such a large prepon¬ 
derance of Middle Lias fossils that there is scarcely a doubt 
as to where it should be placed. I have between ninety and 
a hundred species from this bed in Northamptonshire, and I 
believe quite tliree-fourtlis of them would be regarded as 
Middle Lias. 
(To be continued.) 
METEOROLOGICAL NOTES.— March, 1885. 
The barometer experienced several fluctuations during the month, 
and some of the changes of pressure were both sudden and rapid. 
On the 14th the reading was 30-630 inches at Loughborough, at 8 a.m., 
its highest point. Temperature was below the average, the mean 
being 2’4° less than that of February ; the range was smaller than 
usual for the time of year. The highest maxima were 60-0° at 
Henley-in-Arden, on the 20tli; 58-4° at Hodsock, 53-7° at Strelley, 
and 53-5 at Coston Rectory, on the 17tli; and 55-5° at Loughborough, 
on the 28th. In March, 1884, the highest maximum at Loughborough 
was 69-1°. In the rays of the sun 117-1° was registered at Hodsock, 
and 101-2° at Strelley, on the 17th ; and 105-8° at Loughborough, on 
the 27th. The lowest minimum readings were 22-5° at Coston 
Rectory, on the 24th; 23-5° at Hodsock, on the 2nd; 24-4° at 
Loughborough, on the loth ; 26 - 0° at Henley-in-Arden, on the loth ; 
and 28-0° at Strelley, on the 2nd and 23rd. On the grass, the 
thermometer recorded 17-3° at Hodsock, 18-1° at Strelley, and 20-2° at 
Loughborough, on the 23rd. The rainfall was below the average, the 
* “On the Middle and Upper Lias of the Dorsetshire Coast,” by 
E. C. H. Day, Esq., “ Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,” 
August, 1863. 
f “ On Some Middle and Upper Lias Beds in the Neighbourhood 
of Banbury,” by Edwin A. Walford ; “ Proceedings of the Warwick¬ 
shire Naturalists’ and Archaeologists’ Field Club,” 1878. 
