868 STRATIGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY. | Boox VI. 
shells, and including the remarkable group of plant- and insect-bearing beds 
of Oeningen. ‘ 
Upper marine Molasse (Helvetian stage)—sandstones and calcareous conglo- 
merates, with 37 per cent. of living species of shells, which are to he found 
partly in the Mediterranean, and partly in tropical seas (Pectunculus glyci- 
meris (pilosus), Panopea Faujasti (Menard), Conus ventricosus, &c.). 
Lower fresh-water or Grey Molasse (Mayence stage)—sandstones with abundant 
remains of terrestrial vegetation, and containing also an intercalated marine 
band with Cerithium lignitarum, Venus clathrata, Murex plicatus, &e. 
In the Oeningen beds, so gently have the leaves, flowers, and fruits 
fallen, and so well have they been preserved, that we may actually trace 
the alternation of the seasons by the succession of different conditions of 
the plants. Selecting 482 of those plants which admit of comparison, — 
Heer remarks that 131 might be referred to a temperate, 266 to a sub- 
tropical, and 85 to a tropical zone. American types are most frequent 
among them; European types stand next in number, followed in order 
of abundance by Asiatic, African, and Australian. Great numbers of 
insects (between 800 and 900 species) have been obtained from Oeningen. 
Judging from the proportions of species found there, the total insect 
fauna may be presumed to have been then richer in some respects than 
it now is in any part of Europe. The wood-beetles were specially 
numerous and large. Nor did the large animals of the land escape pre- 
servation in the silt of the lake. We know, from bones found in the 
Molasse, that among the inhabitants of that land were species of tapir, 
mastodon, rhinoceros, and deer. The woods were haunted by musk-deer, 
apes, opossums, three-toed horses, and some of the strange, long-extinct 
Tertiary ruminants, akin to those of Eocene times. There were also 
frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, squirrels, hares, beavers, and a number of 
small carnivores. On the lake the huge Deinotherium floated, mooring 
himself perhaps to its banks by the two strong tusks in his under jaws. 
The waters were likewise tenanted by numerous fishes (of which 32 
species have been described, all save one referable to existing genera), 
crocodiles, and chelonians. 
Greenland.'—One of the most remarkable geological discoveries of 
recent times has been that of Tertiary plant beds in North Greenland. 
Heer has described a flora extending at least up to 70° N. lat., containing 
137 species, of which 46 are found also in the central European Miocene 
basins. More than half of the plants are trees, including 30 species of 
conifers (Sequoia, Thujopsis, Salisburia, &c.), besides beeches, oaks, planes, 
poplars, maples, walnuts, limes, magnolias, and many more. These 
plants grew on the spot, for their fruits in various stages of growth have 
been obtained from the beds. From Spitzbergen (78° 56’ N. lat.) 136 - 
species of fossil plants have been named by Heer. But the latest English 
Arctic expedition brought to light a bed of coal, black and lustrous like 
one of the Paleozoic fuels, from 81° 45’ lat. It is from 25 to 30 feet 
thick, and is covered by black shales and sandstones full of land-plants. 
Heer notices 26 species, 18 of which had already been found in the Arctic 
Miocene zone. As in Spitzbergen, the conifers are most numerous (pines, 
firs, spruces, and cypresses), but there occur also the arctic poplar, two 
species of birch, two of hazel, an elm, and a viburnum. In addition to 
1 Heer, “ Flora Fossilis Arctica,” Q. J. Geol. Soc. 1878, p. 66. Nordenskidld, Geol. 
Mag. iii. (1876), p. 207. In this paper sections with lists of the plants found in Spitz- 
bergen are given. 
