About 25
per cent of the shells of the Faluns are identical with existing
species. The sands, limestones, and marls of the Department of
Gers, near the base of the Pyrenees, rendered famous by the number
or Mammalian remains exhumed from them by M. Lartet, also belong
to the age of the Faluns.
In _Switzerland_, between the Alps and the Jura, there occurs
a great series of Miocene deposits, known collectively as the
"Molasse," from the soft nature of a greenish sandstone, which
constitutes one of its chief members. It attains a thickness of
many thousands of feet, and rises into lofty mountains, some
of which--as the Rigi--are more than 6000 feet in height. The
middle portion of the Molasse is of marine origin, and is shown
by its fossils to be of the age of the Faluns; but the lower
and upper portions of the formation are mainly or entirely of
fresh-water origin. The Lower Molasse (of Lower Miocene age)
has yielded about 500 species of plants, mostly of tropical or
sub-tropical forms. The Upper Molasse has yielded about the same
number of plants, with about 900 species of Insects, such as
wood-eating Beetles Water-beetles, White Ants, Dragon-flies, &c.
In _Belgium_, strata of both Lower and Upper Miocene age are
known,--the former (_Rupelian Clays_) containing numerous marine
fossils; whilst the latter (_Bolderberg Sands_) have yielded
numerous shells corresponding with those of the Faluns.
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