GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA I I I 



6. THE HERNANDO HAMMOCK BELT 



(Figs. 15-17. Soil analyses V, W\) ^' 



In the Third Annual Report this was treated as an outlier of 

 the Middle P'lorida hammock belt, but it differs from the southern 

 extension of that in Marion County in being much less calcareous 

 and more hilly, and in the entire absence of red oak (the commonest 

 hardwood tree around Ocalaj, and it seems to merit separate treat- 

 ment. It occupies high land about equally distant from the 

 Withlacoochee River and the Gulf coast, as if it was an erosion 

 remnant left by the deepening of the valley of that river in pre-his- 

 toric times. The portions immediately north and" south of Brooks- 

 ville have been called Annuttalaga and Choocochattee hammocks 

 respectively, but they are considerably larger and more diversified 

 than typical hammocks. The area of the belt is about 200 square 

 miles. 



Geology and Topography. The Chattahoochee formation, an 

 impure limestone of Oligocene. age, is exposed around Brooksville, 

 and may underlie the whole area. It is pretty well covered up, 

 though, by clay (utilized for brick-making at Brooksville) and sand. 

 The topography is decidedly hilly, for Florida. Some of the hills 

 are among the highest in the state, though no reliable measurements 

 of them are available yet. The Atlantic Coast Line depot at Brooks- 

 ville is said to be 126 feet above sea-level, and the business portion 

 of the town must be about 100 feet higher, and other elevations 

 near by may be still higher. Blanton, in Pasco County, has an 

 altitude of 106 feet by the railroad survey, and some of the hills 

 a few miles northwest of there the writer would judge from walking 

 over them to be nearly 200 feet higher. Mirror Lake, near the 

 abandoned station of Lenard, a few miles northeast of Blanton, 

 was claimed in an advertisement a few years ago to be 330 fee- 

 above sea-level ; but the altitude of Lenard is given as 1 1*5 feet, and 

 the lake does not appear to be much higher than that, probably 

 not over 50 feet higher. 



On account of the calcareous nature of the country rock, and the 

 still purer limestone of older formations below it, much of the 

 drainage is subterranean. There are a number of lime-sinks, the 

 best known of which is the Devil's Punchbowl, in the woods a few 

 miles northwest of Brooksville. a conical depression perhaps 100 

 feet in diameter and 50 feet deep. Apparently no streams from 



