EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 321 



lantern. One morning this Dog was accidentally locked up at the time his 

 master departed. The moment he was liberated, however, he followed him ; and 

 when he overtook him, finding that his master had not the lantern, immediately 

 returned home ; and, seizing the lantern, followed his master with it. 



A tame Pigeon who had been domesticated in a kitchen, happened to see a 

 Fowl killed ; on witnessing this, the bird immediately took flight, and never 

 returned to the kitchen. — Monthly Chronicle, March, 1838. 



BOTANY. 



3. Phosphorescent Vegetables. — In consequence of the observations made 

 on the phosphorescence of the Agaricus of the Olive-tree, M. Vallot has been 

 making some researches concerning those plants which have been mentioned by 

 the ancients as exhibiting the same phenomenon. The descriptions of plants in 

 those days were so imperfect, that it would be difficult to state anything positively 

 on their authority ; but M. Vallot thinks there is every reason to believe that 

 this phosphorescence proceeded from certain Fungi. 



GEOLOGY. 



4. Fossil Teeth op Oran. — M. Duvernoy has submitted several fossil teeth to 

 the French Academy of Sciences, which he received from Oran, together with a 

 piece of osseous breccia. The latter confirms the existence of these brecciae on 

 the African shores of the Mediterranean, as well as on those of Europe. If it 

 Were possible to demonstrate that the osseous breccia of Africa contains the same 

 species of animals as that of Europe, their identity as to cause would be con- 

 firmed, as well as their extent. A further study of both would also, in. all 

 probability, throw great light on the epoch in which the Mediterranean was 

 formed. The osseous breccia of Oran, like that of Gibraltar, &c, is a calcareous 

 concretion, of a fine rust-colour, and of earthy fracture, and may be compared to 

 brick clay, well baked, and full of small irregular cavities. Most of the isolated 

 teeth in it are those of fishes. It is remarkable, that all those examined by M. 

 Agassiz, and mentioned by him in the Voyage dans la Regence d' Alger, belong 

 to the Shad, or genus Alosa (Alosa elongata, Agassiz), as if entire banks of the 

 fish had been enveloped in one common catastrophe. M. Duvernoy has only 

 found detached teeth, and no fragments of the skeleton of the fish, and therefore 

 is unable to do more than conjecture to what they belong. He thinks he has 

 recognized those of the Chrgsophris globiceps, and neighbouring species. Besides 

 these, is one belonging to the Sargus of Cuvier, an incisor, composed of enamel 

 of different colours. Two other teeth, he presumes, belong to a marine animal 

 hitherto unknown, and bearing nb resemblance to those of any living or fossil 

 Mammalia.— Athenaeum, March 31, 1838. 



