SUCCESSION OF MAMMALS. 87 



Six species extend from the Aquitanian to the (Eningian stage, 

 namely : Rhinoceros incisivus, Goldfussi, and minutus, Tapirus 

 helveticus, Chalicomys minutus, and Cervus medius. 



Generally the species of the different stages overlap each other, 

 especially if we take into consideration their occurrence in other 

 parts of Europe. Moreover it must not be forgotten, that of 

 many species only single specimens have hitherto been found ; 

 and upon these we must not lay too great a stress. The 

 animals most generally distributed are of far more import- 

 ance; and these tell us that, in the first period of the Swiss 

 Miocene formation, great Anthracotheria, rhinoceroses, tapirs, 

 and deer inhabited Switzerland, but that the Anthracotheria 

 disappeared at the close of the lower freshwater Miocene ; whilst 

 the others outlived the period when the low grounds were con- 

 verted into sea-bottoms, and they reappeared in the valleys during 

 the formation of the upper freshwater Miocene. The Mastodons 

 are first found in the third stage, as is proved by the remains 

 floated out to sea and met with on the Lindenbiihl ; but they only 

 became generally diffused in the fifth stage, during which the 

 Dinotheria and the calling-hares are first met with*. 



II. MARINE ANIMALS. 



In the history of the Miocene period the sea repeatedly occu- 

 pied the low grounds of Switzerland, and has left behind nume- 

 rous traces of its presence. Three times the sea covered certain 

 parts of the country, and formed the marine deposits already 

 referred to (vol. i. p. 295) : in this way three stages of marine 

 Molasse have been deposited : the Tongrian, confined to the 

 Canton of Basle and the Bernese Jura ; a second forming a band 



* Lartet (Bull. Soc. Ge"ol. de France, xvi. 1859) and Prof. Suess (Sitz- 

 ungsber. der Akad. der Wiss. zu TVien, 1863) admit three Miocene mamma- 

 lian faunas, first, that of the Anthracotheria] second, that of Mastodon an- 

 gustidem and Mastodon tapiroides ; and, third, that of Mastodon longirostris. 

 The last does not seem to appear in Switzerland. But when Suess refers to 

 it Dinotherium giyanteum, Hipparion gracile, and Rhinoceros incisivus, he 

 forgets that these species occur in Switzerland, and that the rhinoceros already 

 appeared in the second stage ; so that these animals cannot be selected to cha- 

 racterize his third mammalian fauna of the Miocene period. 



