124 Notices of the Floridas, &cs 
is some good land. The nea scattered apodeme of the 
coast here terminate. Lime stone, in situ, forms the basis 
of sand hills near Indian rivat, “etd is found at t Cups “Floti¢ 
da, and at the Florida Keys in extensive beds. Below In- 
dian river, good land rarely occurs. 
The Florida coast is said to be eradpuile encroaching oa 
the ocean; new isles and peninsulas are formed by shells 
and sand, Papcuiiiilated by the gulf stream, and storms, 
leaving narrow sounds to the west, that are filled up, and 
supportvegetation when their communication with the sea 
is cut off by tempests, which not unfrequently happens. The 
alternation of sands and narrow marl swamps of recent ori- 
gin, egg parallel with the sea, gives plausibility to this 
suggestio 
he i Sifbrior of Florida, from the head of the St. Johns 
to the southern extremity of the peninsula, is little known, 
but is supposed to be mostly, if not entirely, alluvial. The 
Indians report that there is a succession of grassy wet sa- 
vannas that extend far south, and within a few miles of the 
Atlantic, occupying much of the ees alternating with 
swamps, wet hammocks, and pine barren 
A section of the great savanna was siidesadt by Col. 
Gadsden in the service of the United States. He repre- 
sents it as extending beyond the reach of vision, in one 
continued prairie, covered with grass and destitute of trees 
and shrubs with a sandy surface. It is supposed to be 
near 100 miles in circumference. 
The southern basins, in the rainy months, eee: large 
bodies of water that mostly disappear in the winter. 
Col. Gadsden found thie region about Charlotte river and 
bay on the eastern side of Florida peninsula, to consist ex- 
clusively of flat pine barrens, and dry palmetto plains, con- 
taining shallow ponds, and wet, miry savannas, of recent 
formation from lakes or the sea. Charlotte river drains ex- 
tensive bay and cypress swamps, and open savannas of the 
interior. Its western course is marked by rege ste cab- 
bage trees, and scrub oak thickets, marine shells in many. 
places form its ear and its banks present alternate ‘ice of 
sea sand and shel 
he existence of a large permanent lake located by maps 
in the the southern part of the peninsula is doubted. Frosts 
rarely occur in Florida below the 27th degree of latitude. 
