WATER SUPPLY OF WEST FLORIDA. 
119 
JACKSON COUNTY. 
LOCATION AND SURFACE FEATURES. 
Jackson county lies west of the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola 
rivers, these rivers forming its eastern boundary. On the south it 
is bounded by Calhoun and Washington counties and on the west 
by Washington and Holmes counties, being separated from the 
latter county by Holmes Creek. To the north it extends to the 
Florida-Alabama line. The total area is 963 square miles or 616,320 
acres. 
The Vicksburg Limestone lies at or close to the surface through¬ 
out the northern part of the county and its influence upon the topo¬ 
graphy is very apparent. Many limestone springs, natural bridges, 
sinks and ponds occur besides numerous outcrops of the formation 
itself. The largest and best known of these springs is Blue Spring 
about six miles east of Marianna. This spring is the source of 
Blue Spring Creek which flows into the Chipola River. The solvent 
action of water upon the underlying limestones is the principal 
agent of erosion in this county. 
The northwestern part of Jackson county includes chiefly roll¬ 
ing pine lands similar in character to the adjoining parts of Holmes 
and Washington counties. Along the Chipola River in the central 
part of the county is found a hammock type of country in which the 
red clay soils predominate. The native vegetation of the hammocks 
originally included many hard wood trees, although a large per¬ 
centage of the land is now cleared for farming. The^southern part 
of the county west of the Chipola River is of a more sandy character 
forming the eastward continuation of the upland section of Wash¬ 
ington county. The eastern part of the county includes chiefly 
long leaf pine lands although, on the slope leading to the Apalachi¬ 
cola River the hard wood hammock lands and the red clay soils 
reappear. 
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ELEVATIONS. 
The following elevations are obtained from the surveys by the 
Louisville and Nashville Railroad which crosses the central part 
of the county from east to west: Sneads 97 feet; Cypress 146 feet; 
Marianna 89 feet; Cottondale 142 feet; Round Lake, in the south¬ 
eastern part of the county on the Atlanta and St. Andrews Bay 
Railroad, is reported to be approximately 257 feet above sea. Com- 
