ORIGIN OR THE HARD ROC 1C PHOSPHATES. 
65 
Hammock Belt. In this type of country the surface is rolling, 
or somewhat hilly and occasionally flat bottomed lakes are found, 
which occupy solution basins. The soils on the slopes are pre¬ 
vailingly 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 Florida 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 Railway, is also included. This belt occupies 
the border land between the limestone and non-limestone country 
of this part of the State. The second well marked area is that 
which extends north and south through Citrus, Hernando and 
Pasco Counties, and is surrounded on all sides by more intensely 
eroded limestone country. A third large area of this type of 
country lies west of the Suwannee River, including the northern 
part of Leon, Jefferson and Madison Counties. Temporary lakes, 
rolling topography, good drainage, and red clay soils are charac¬ 
teristic features of this stage of topographic development. 
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, Oklawaha and With- 
lacoochee Rivers. Aside from these rivers surface streams are 
few, the rainfall passing into the soil. Lakes, as implied by the 
name, are extremely numerous in this section of the country. 
They are of a characteristic type, being usually deep, circular in 
outline and bordered by abrupt sloping banks. They are entirely 
distinct from the temporary, flat bottomed, shallow lakes of the 
Middle Florida Hammock Belt. 
The lake region represents, in the writer’s interpretation, an 
early stage in the degradation of the surface level by under- 
