30 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 
MIDDLE FLORIDA HAMMOCK BELT. 
Inland from the hard rock phosphate belt is found areas less 
affected by erosion in which more or less of the formations that orig¬ 
inally overlaid the limestone may be identified in position. To this 
type of country Harper has applied the term Middle Florida Ham¬ 
mock belt.* In this belt of country the surface is rolling or some¬ 
what hilly, and occasional flat bottomed lakes occur which occupy 
solution basins. The soils on the slopes are prevailingly red with 
red clay sub-soil. Surface streams occur, although most of these 
terminate either in lakes or in sink-holes through which they gain 
entrance to the underlying limestones, forming the disappearing 
streams characteristic of this type of country. In peninsular Flor¬ 
ida two areas of Middle Florida Hammock lands may be designated. 
One of these includes a narrow belt extending in a northwest to 
southeast direction through Columbia and Alachua Counties into 
Marion County. A small part of Suwannee County east of Houston 
along the Seaboard Air Line Eailroad is also included. This belt 
occupies the border land between the limestone and the non-lime¬ 
stone country of this part of the State. The second well-marked 
area is that which extends north and south through Citrus, Her¬ 
nando and Pasco Countips, and is surrounded on all sides by more 
intensely eroded limestone country. West of the Suwannee River 
there is a large area of this type of country, including the northern 
part of Leon, Jefferson, and Madison Counties. The temporary lakes 
of Leon, Jackson, Jefferson, Madison, Alachua, Columbia, and Her¬ 
nando Counties described in the preceding report,f all lie within this 
belt and are characteristic features of the topography. The red clay 
lands of Leon, Jackson, Jefferson, Madison, Alachua, Columbia, and 
Hernando and parts of other counties, arise from this stage of 
topographic development. 
THE LAKE REGION. 
The lake region of Florida as a physiographic type has long been 
known and often referred to in the literature of Florida. This type 
of topography includes a large area, extending from Clay County 
on the north to near the middle of DeSoto County on the south, its 
greatest width being found in Lake and Orange Counties. It is cut 
into by the St. Johns, Ocklawaha and Withlacoochee Rivers. Lakes, 
•Third Annual Report Fla. Geol. Survey, 1909. 
tSome Florida Lakes and Lake Basins, by E. H. Sellards, 3rd Annual 
Report, Fla. Geol. Survey, pp. 43-76, 1910. 
