320 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



i8. PENINSULAR LAKE REGION. 

 (figure 84) 



References. Harper i (223-224), Harper 7 (359), Matson & Sanford (391- 

 393), Sellards, 2nd Ann. Rep. 242-243, Sellards 2 (12, 30-31), Sellards 3 (295-296, 

 or 49-50), Sellards & Gunter 2 (93-94. I53), Smith 2 (232, 233). Illustrated in 

 3d Ann. Rep., pi. 12.1 ; 4th, pi. lo.i ; 5th, pi. ii.i. 



This region is distinctly peculiar to Florida, with no counter- 

 part elsewhere. It extends from the vicinity of Lake Kingsley in 

 Clay County southward down the axis of the peninsula for some 200 

 miles. This report considers only that part included in Clay and 

 Putnam Counties, about 500 square miles. 



Geology and ^oiU — Rock outcrops are very rare, and chiefly 

 confined to the vicinity of large springs, none of which are known in 

 the portion of the lake region under consideration ; consequently no 

 definite statement can be made about the Tertiary geology. The 

 lowest stratum exposed in railroad cuts and other excavations is a 

 pale, more or less mottled clay, which is usually rather sandy, but in 

 some places is pure enough to be mined for kaolin. On the uplands 

 the surface is everywhere several feet of more or less loamy sand, 

 about like that of the lime-sink region just described. (Neither 

 mechanical nor chemical analyses of it are available at this writing.) 

 Its prevailing color is cream or pale buff, but in the areas known as 

 scrub (described further under the head of vegetation) it is usually 

 almost snow-white, on the surface at least. In many depressions 

 several feet of peat overlies the sand. 



Salamanders, gophers, and other burrowing animals are almost 

 as common here as in the lime-sink region, but they seem to avoid 

 the white sand of the scrub. 



Topography and Hydrography — The prevailing topography is 

 much like that of the lime-sink region, with rounded hills and basins 

 and few streams or valleys, but on a somewhat larger scale. Some 

 of the basins may be as much as 100 feet deep (i. e., if filled with 

 water to overflowing the water would have that depth). It is 

 said that Lake Kingsley averages 60 feet deep, and has some 

 places in it considerably deeper. In the vicinity of the Ocklawaha 

 and St. Johns Rivers there are wide stretches of flatwoods scarce- 

 ly distinguishable from the East Florida flatWoods (described next), 

 with which they are indeed connected. The rolling topography of 

 the uplands is not so evidently the result of solution as is that of the 

 I'me-sink region, and no satisfactory explanation of it has yet been 



