SOME FLORIDA LAKES AND LAKE BASINS. 
57 
The surface soil in the basin is quite generally a gray sand dark¬ 
ened by admixture of organic matter. In the lower parts of the 
lake, quite generally covered by water, more or less muck or peat 
occurs formed from the accumulation of aquatic vegetation. Sand 
lighter in color and lacking the organic matter occurs at a depth of 
iy 2 or 2 feet to 3 or 4 feet. Beneath this sand is the usual red 
sandy clay. 
This lake as already mentioned became dry, or nearly so, in 
the early spring of 1907. It was partly filled by the summer rains 
of the same year, but became dry or nearly so again during the 
summer of 1909. The accompanying photograph of this lake was 
taken July 5, 1909 and shows an unusually low water stage of the 
lake for that season of the year. (PI. 7, Fig.i). 
LAKE LAFAYETTE. 
Lafayette Basin or Lake Lafayette lies in the eastern part of 
Leon County between Tallahassee and Chaires. The basin begins 
three and one half miles east of Tallahassee, and extends to within 
one mile of Chaires, having a total length of about five and one-half 
miles, and a width of one-half to one mile. An arm of the lake 
extends north from near the east end of the lake. The bottom of 
the basin is nearly level with the exception of occasional slight de¬ 
pressions. The tributaries to the lake are flat-bottomed streams 
with relatively broad valleys and no well defined channel. The soil 
in these stream valleys is a sandy loam, and the streams are or¬ 
dinarily dry, carrying water only during the rainy season. 
A drainage sink in this basin occurs near the west end of the 
lake along the northern border (See Fig. 3). The sink when 
measured in September, 1909, was found to have a total depth of 
75 feet. The sink is found, as is usual in this type of lake basin, 
lacing a prominent bluff. A second sink is formed beyond the lake 
border, thus indicating the enlargement of the lake basin in that 
direction by subsidence, due to* underground solution. This new 
sink is one hundred yards or more in circumference, and when 
formed carried down to the lake level, land which stood fifty feet or 
more above the lake and was being used previous to the subsidence 
as a cemetery. 
That part of the lake basin which surrounds the sink lies at a 
slightly lower level than the more remote parts of the basin and 
is the first to be submerged at the approach of the rainy season. 
This area is entirely devoid of trees, and during the dry season 
becomes a prairie. The greater part of the basin lying to the south 
of the railroad is thickly set with small cypress trees. 
