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 of 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 breccioe 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 Uegence 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 Chrysophris 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 no resemblance to those of any living or fossil 
Mammalia.— Athenaeum , March 31, 1838. 
