46 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



Florida is one of the largest States in the Union ; the 

 very largest east of the Mississippi River. It embraces 

 37,913,600 acres of good, solid land, and 4,440 square 

 miles of water, and has over 1,200 miles of coast line. So 

 you see there is plenty of room for variety of all kinds, 

 especially so when we note the fact that her length from 

 north to south (that is, from the southern point of the 

 peninsula to the Georgia line) is 380 miles, and her 

 breadth in what is called the mainland portion, is 345 

 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rio Perdido. The 

 average breadth of the peninsula is less than one hundred 

 miles, and that of the strip between the Gulf of Mexico 

 and the Georgia and Alabama Hues is less than forty miles, 

 consequently there is no portion of the State so far removed 

 from the vicinity of the sea air as not to feel its modifying 

 influences. 



South Florida — and by this term we mean those coun- 

 ties that have an undisputed claim to the title which is 

 often erroneously bestowed on others that should more 

 properly be termed the ''Central Belt." South Florida, 

 represented by the counties of Dade, Monroe, Brevard, 

 Manatee, Lee, Hillsboro, Hernando, Osceola, Citra, and 

 Polk are noted for their generally "level" surface, prai- 

 ries, and flat woods, with the exception of Polk and Citra, 

 which are the proud possessors of numerous beautiful, 

 clear water lakes, formed by a rather undulating country 

 — "high sand hills," as they are termed, only they are 

 not really "high" at all, that is, to a resideut of a true 

 hill country; but locally the name is correct, although 

 non-residents are apt to be misled by its application. High 

 hammock, low hammock, high sand hills, flat woods, all 

 these are localisms well understood by those acquainted 

 with the State. It is not height above the sea that is 

 indicated, but location with regard to natural drainage. 



