4- KNOx lilLL COUNTRY. 21/ 



4. KNOX HILL COUNTRY. 

 (figure 52) 



References. Matson & Clapp (106-117), Matson & Sanford (iii, 121, 

 129), Sellards 3 (291 or 45), Sellards & Gunter 3 (107), Smith 2 (224), Wil- 

 liams. 



This region is confined to the eastern part of Wahuu Count), 

 where it covers about 50 square miles, lying between the lime-sink 

 region and the pine hills somewhat like the Apalachicola River 

 bluff region, of which it is in some respects a counterpart. There is 

 a shiall and ill-defined area of similar country a few miles farther 

 west, near Alaqua Creek, but otherwise there is nothing exactly like 

 it elsewhere. It bears a considerable resemblance, however, to parts 

 of the central short-leaf pine belt of Alabama,* which is quite differ- 

 ent geologically. 



Geology and Soils — Outcrops of rock or fossiliferous sfjita are 

 rare, but it would appear from available geological maps that the 

 region is underlaid by Upper Oligocene and Miocene strata, belong- 

 ing to the Alum Bluff and Choctawhatchee formations. Exposures 

 of the former have been reported from ravines near Knox Hill and 

 Eucheeanna and of the latter from near Red Bay, by Matson and 

 his associates on the pages above cited. 



The prevailing soil is a reddish to brownish clay or loam, largely 

 if not chiefly derived from the weathering of the underlying Ter- 

 tiary strata. Some of the hills are rather sandy, but on the whole 

 this region probably contains the most clayey soil in the State. In 

 hardly any other part of Florida does it seem necessary to overcome 

 tlie stickiness of the clay in the roads by covering the worst spots 

 v/ith small poles ("corduroy") or sand. No analyses are available, 

 but in the parts of Alabama and Mississippi that have similar vegeta- 

 tion the percentage of magnesium in the soil is rather high, and of 

 phosphorus rather low. Humus is quite abundant, on account of the 

 density of the forests. 



Topography and Hydrography — This region is rather hilly foi 

 Florida, there being in some places as much as 100 feet difference 

 in elevation between hills and adjacent valleys. There are few or no 

 evidences of solution, the topography being of the kind produced by 

 normal erosion. The larger valleys contain creeks, bordered by 

 more or less swamp, but in many of the smaller ones the branches 



*For description of that part of Alabama, including a quantitative 

 list of trees, see Geol. Surv. Ala. Monog. 8:72-76. 1913. 



