GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 1 6/ 



The water of most of onr lakes is comparatively clear, and some 

 in Seminole and Orange Counties are used for city water supplies 

 in preference to the hard and sulphurous artesian water. The 

 clearest lake of any size in central Florida is probably Lake Weir, 

 in the southern part of Marion County. Two or three small coffee- 

 colored branches enter its eastern end and tinge the water there a 

 little, but its w'estern end, which is in the lime-sink region, is sc 

 clear that one can see the bottom where it is several feet deep. This 

 is probably correlated with a small amount of limestone in solution,, 

 for a species of mussel (Unio Cimninghami) is common in the 

 western part of the lake. 



Ponds and swamps. Shallow ponds, which may dry up com- 

 pletely in dry seasons, varying in size from perhaps one to a hun- 

 dred acres, abound in the flatwoods and are fairly common in the 

 lime-sink region. They nearly always have considerable vegetation 

 in them, sometimes only maiden-cane, wampee, bonnets, and 

 other herbs, but more often bushes or trees or both. (Additional 

 details are given in the chapter on vegetation.) 



The various types of marshes and peat bogs have been prett} 

 fully discussed in the Third Annual Report, and some of them will 

 be referred to farther on under the head of vegetation. The same 

 might be said of swamps, which are not very extensive in centra) 

 Florida. 



Springs. There is perhaps no equal area in the United States 

 that has more large springs than central Florida. Most of them are 

 the points of emergence of subterranean creeks or rivers, which 

 usually come up through one or more irregular openings in the hot-' 

 tom of bowl-like basins. They are most common in the lime-sink, 

 region and near its edges, but there are also several in the Gulf 

 hammock region and a few in the lake region, particularly near the 

 St. John's River and on the edges of the great Wekiva River swamp 

 in Seminole and Orange Counties. 



Silver Spring (fig. 8), a few miles east of Ocala, is one of the 

 largest springs known, about 200 feet wide and 35 feet deep. One 

 discharge measurement made of it gave about 150,000 gallons ^ 

 minute, or 333 cubic feet a second, and another, probably some dis- 

 tance down stream, about twice as much. The stream or "run" 

 issuing from it is so large that small steamers from the Ocklavvaha 

 River can come right up into the spring; and this has been a fa- 



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