66 TRANSACTIONS OF THE WAGNER FREE 



5. No indisputable Eocene rocks have thus far been identified in the 

 State, but not improbably some such exist in the more northerly sections, 

 and possibly include even a part of what has generally been referred to 

 the Oligocene. In how far the older formations were overlaid by deposits 

 of a newer date, or to what extent the northern half of the State may 

 have participated in a general submergence coincidently with the forma- 

 tion of the more southerly portions, remains to be determined. 



6. Sedimentation and deposition along this portion of the American 

 coast appear to have been practically unbroken or continuous, as is 

 indicated by the gradational union of the different formations, and the 

 absence of broad or distinct lines of faunal separation. 



7. The strata as far as could be ascertained are very nearly horizontal, 

 or dip at only a very moderate angle, but no true or direct line of 

 declination could anywhere be detected. At no locality could any two 

 formations be unequivocally identified as resting one above the other, 

 except in so far as the Post-Pliocene represents one of the factors under 

 consideration. 



8. No disturbance of any moment, or one sufficient to sensibly 

 react upon the rock masses, seems to have visited the Floridian region 

 since the initial formation of the present State in the Older Tertiary 

 period. The elevation of the peninsula, especially in its more southern 

 parts, appears to have been effected very gradually, judging from the 

 perfect preservation of most of the later fossils, and the normal positions 

 i. e., the positions which they occupied when living which many of the 

 species still maintain. 



9. The northern half of the State represents in great part a deep-sea 

 formation, whereas the southern half is marked by deposits indicative of 

 a comparatively shallow sea. It would appear that before its final eleva- 

 tion a large part of the peninsula, especially its southern half, was for a 

 considerable period in the condition of a submerged flat or plain, the 

 shallows covering which were most favorably situated for the development 

 of a profuse animal life, and permitted of the accumulation of reef- 

 structures and of vast oyster and scallop banks. The present submerged 

 plain or plateau to the west of the peninsula may be taken to represent 

 this condition. Fresh-water streams, and consequently dry land, existed 

 in the more southern parts of the peninsula during the Pliocene period, 

 as is proved by the interassociation of marine and fluviatile mollusks in 

 the deposits of the Caloosahatchie. 



