lO. MIDDLE FLORIDA HAMMOCK BELT. 257 



Salamanders are common in the sandiest soils ("Norfolk sand," 

 etc.), ants are ubiquitous, and no doubt other subterranean animals 

 abound in certain places. 



Topography and Hydrography — The topography of this belt 

 varies from decidedly hilly, for Florida, to practically flat. The 

 elevations range from over 250 feet in Gadsden County and about 

 200 in Columbia to about 50 feet at the coastward edge. In Gads- 

 den County, where the steepest hills are found, the topography has 

 been produced almost entirely by erosion, and there are many ra- 

 vines containing swift branches, much as in the Apalachicola bluff 

 region (No. 3) on the other side of the county; but farther east 

 there are many evidences of solution, and streams are scarcer. 

 There are a few caves, sinks, and big springs, mostly east of the 

 Withlacoochee River (of Georgia). Most of the streams are of 

 the coffee-colored type, but there are also a few short clear calcare- 

 ous runs issuing from large springs. There are no muddy rivers, 

 except that the Ocklocknee becomes somewhat turbid after pro- 

 longed rains (and that probably did not occur before the farmers 

 began to clear up the country around its tributaries). Several 

 streams which rise near the inland edge of this belt flow across it 

 and disappear into the ground near its coastward edge. Flat-bot- 

 tomed lakes which drain into sinks and are dry a good deal of the 

 time are characteristic of this region, but not wholly confined to it. 

 (See paper by Dr. Sellards on pages 1 15-159 of this volume.) 



Vegetation Types — These are as varied as the soil and topog- 

 raphy; embracing upland oak woods, high and low pine lands, 

 hammocks of several kinds, swamps, bays, ponds, marshes, prairies, 

 etc. Fire is frequent in the pine lands and rare in the hammocks 

 and swamps, as usual. 



Plants — In order to bring out certain local irregularities of dis- 

 tribution the region is divided for statistical purposes somewhat 

 arbitrarily into three parts by means of rivers ; namely : ( i ) that 

 part west of the Ocklocknee River, which as far as Florida is con- 

 cerned is practically the same as the part west of the Tallahassee 

 red hills; (2) the part betw^een the Ocklocknee and the Withlacoo- 

 chee River (of Georgia) ; (3) the part southeast of the Withla- 

 coochee. There are three columns of percentages, to correspond 

 with these three divisions. The + and — marks, however, refer 

 only to the average for the whole region (which is not necessarily 



