720 REPORT— 1891. 



TUESDAY, AUGUST 25. 

 The following' Papers were read : — 



1. The Slam Border} Bij Lord Lamington. 



Colorado. By Dr. Bell. 



3. The Physical and Industrial Oeograjjhy of Florida. 

 By AhTHUR MoNTEFioRE, F.G.S., F.B.G.S. 



General. — Florida is a peninsula witli certain unique characteristics. Though 

 an integral part of North America, a large portion of it belongs, climatically and 

 botanically, to the "West Indies. The southern half of the ))eninsula is sub- 

 tropical, the extreme south tropical. Florida lies between 24° 25' and 31° 0' 

 N. Lat. ; 80° 2' and 87° 37' W. Long. Its area is 58,680 square miles— about 

 that of England and Wales. Of this, 4,440 square miles are water. The extreme 

 length is 465 miles, of which 400 miles belong to peninsular Florida and 65 miles 

 to continental Florida. The average breadth of the peninsula is 100 miles. The 

 coast line is variously estimated — about 1,200 miles is approximate. Florida, 

 though the largest of the States E. of the Mississippi, is one-third the size of 

 California. It is forty-tive times the size of Rhode Island. The west, south, and 

 east coasts are much influenced by the Gulf Stream, which escapes into the Atlantic 

 through the Florida Strait ; as it turns northward along the S.E. coast, it is a 

 volume of water 2,000 feet deep, SO miles wide, flowing with a velocity of live 

 miles an hour, and possessing a temperature of 84° Fahr. The most remarkable 

 inlet is the Indian River, on the E. coast. It is about 130 miles in length from 

 N. to S., is salt and tidal, has an average width of a mile, and is seldom further 

 than a mile from the ocean. The southern extremity of the peninsula is a net- 

 work of lagoous and reefs united and formed by mangroves, and presenting to the 

 Gulf Stream the long barrier of coral reefs known as the Florida Keys. 



_ Surface. — With the exception of Louisiana, Florida has the lowest average 

 altitude of any State in the Union. The low watershed of the peninsula follows 

 the anticlinical whose axis runs N. and S. through the central and northern 

 regions, and it spreads out here and there into a low group of rolling hills. The 

 lottiest point is Table Mountain, by Lake Apopka, and is barely 500 feet. The 

 altitude of the great swampy tract called the Everglades (10,000 square mUes), 

 which lies in the extreme south, is, at its northern point, 16 feet, and at its 

 southern point 5-5 feet above sea-level. The majority of the lakes are situated in 

 the higher rolling country at altitudes from 150 to 300 feet ; but there are many 

 that are low— e.^. Okeechobee (1,000 square miles), 20-44 feet. The main aspect 

 of the surface is rolling country with light sandy soil, and heavy and continuous 

 forests of long-leaved yellow pine {Pinus australis), pitch pine {Pinns ciibensis). 

 Low hummocks frequently occur with clayey soil, topped with fibrous humus, and 

 having dense growth of cypress (Ta.iodiutn distichum), red bay (Persea caro- 

 Unensis), live oak ( Quercus virens), palmetto, magnolias, mahogany, swamp ash 

 (Fraxinus viridis), Ficus aurea, &c. Numerous rivers and streams, and about 

 1,500 lakes and 'springs,' diversify the surface. Swamps and 'prairies' — low 

 grassy land with standing water — are frequent. 



Hydrography. — Florida is dominated by water. It has numerous rivers, and 

 streams, and lakes. Nineteen of its rivers are at present navigated by steamers 

 to a total distance of 1,000 miles. The waterway navigable by boats is nearly 

 ten times this length. The only important rivers that empty into the Atlantic 

 •are the St. Mary's and St. John's Rivers. The former forms the natural boundary 



' Prucccdingt of the Royal Geoyrujikical Society, p. 701, December ISDl. 



