INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, PHILADELPHIA. 65 



GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 



1. The whole State of Florida belongs exclusively to the Tertiary 

 and Post-Tertiary periods of geological time, and consequently, as a 

 defined geographical area, represents the youngest portion of the United 

 States. 



2. There is not a particle of evidence sustaining the coral theory of 

 growth of the peninsula ; on the contrary, all the facts point conclusively 

 against such theory, and indicate that the progressive growth of the 

 peninsula, at least as far as Lake Okeechobee, has been brought about 

 through successive accessions of organic and inorganic material in the 

 normal (or usual) methods of sedimentation and upheaval. The evidence, 

 further, is very strong that beyond Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosa- 

 hatchie the structure of the State is for the most part identical with that 

 above it, and the observed facts clearly prove that this correspondence 

 must exist over at least a considerable portion of the unexplored region 

 of the Everglades. 



3. The Florida coral tract is evidently limited to a border region of 

 the south and southeast. Fossil corals occur sparingly in the Pliocene 

 and older Tertiary deposits, but their appearance indicates only sporadic 

 cases of coral growth, such as are observed at the present day on the 

 borders of the reef-seas, or marginal and included reefs of limited extent, 

 similar to those found on the Miocene border of the Atlantic States 

 generally (Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina). 



4. The formations represented in the State are the Oligocene, Miocene, 

 Pliocene and Post-Pliocene, which follow one another in regular succession, 

 beginning with the oldest, from the north to the south, thus clearly 

 indicating the direction of growth of the peninsula. The successive 

 Tertiary belts do not follow a direct east and west course, but appear 

 to be deflected from the west northeastwards, so as to conform more 

 nearly with the Atlantic coast line on the eastern border of the United 

 States. The amount of overlap possibly resulting from deposition on 

 opposed borders could not be ascertained. 



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