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No. 7.— The Topography of Florida, by N.S. SHALER. With a 
Note by ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. 
[Published by Permission of the Director of the U. S. Geological Survey.]| 
Bora in its general form and in the detail of its surface, Florida pre- 
sents many interesting features. I propose in the following pages to 
pass in general review the more important topographic elements of this 
peninsula, and to consider the information which they give us as to the 
general history of the continent. 
The peninsula of Florida, as is readily seen by glancing at an ordinary 
map, forms a salient on the coast line which departs widely in its gen- 
eral character from all the other great capes of the continent. The pre- 
vailing trends of the eastern coast are from northeast to southwest. 
This projection extends in a general northwest and southeast direction. 
All the other greater peninsulas of the continent are distinctly moun- 
tainous in their character. This of Florida is formed of low lands, rising 
as a broad fold from the deep water on either side to a vast ridge, the 
top of which is relatively very flat, there being no indications of true 
mountain folding in any part of the area, All the other great penin- 
sulas of the continent, except that of Yucatan, which in certain ways 
resembles Florida and may be causatively connected with it, are com- 
posed of old rocks. The last named salient is made up altogether of 
very recent strata. 
The detailed topography of Florida is almost as anomalous as its gen- 
eral configuration. The region of the Everglades in the southern part 
of the peninsula, and that known as the “Lake District ” in the north- 
ern, are both eminently peculiar in their configuration, having, so far as 
I am informed, no likeness in any other part of this country. 
The first question before us concerns the origin of the Florida uplift. 
It will be observed that we have on the peninsula of Florida a very re- 
markable ridge, which has grown up from the sea-floor to the altitude 
of about five thousand feet ; and a somewhat similar elevation in the 
archipelago of the Bahama Islands. Neither of these ridges has a 
VOL. XVI. — NO. 7. 
