270 



BULLETIN 103, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



the statement tliat in Pleistocene time the calcimn carbonate chemi- 

 cally precipitated probably predominated over that secreted by corals 

 in the ratio 100:1.1 



The theory advanced by Louis Agassiz ^ for the building of penin- 

 sular Florida is familiar to most geologists through the writings of 

 LeConte. Agassiz says: * * * "the peninsula itself has once 

 been a reef at least as far as the 28th degree of north latitude, as is 

 shown by the investigation of the Everglades, and by the examination 



Pig. 8. Floeiba, location of Pleistocene coeal eeefs as shown by +, and the location of the 



AGASSIZ-LeCONTE BOXJNDABT OF SUPPOSED COEAL FORMATION. 



of the rocks at San Augustine." According to LeConte 's map about 

 half of peninsular Florida was formed through the agency of coral 

 reefs .^ (See figure 8, above.) 



Eugene A. Smith, in 1881, showed that Eocene deposits extend 

 south of Ocala into the peninsula; Heilprin showed that corals are 

 •unimportant to the latitude of Lake Okechobee; Alexander Agassiz 



1 Vaughan, T. W. , Sketch of the geologic history of the Florida coral-reef tract and comparison with other 

 coral-reef areas, Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 4, p. 26, 1914. 



2 U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Ann. Rept. 1851, pp. 145-lGO, 1S52. 

 ' Elements of geology, ed. 4, p. 163. 



