PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT. 
221 
shaped depressions a few acres in extent, which hold water long- 
enough for a little peat to form. 
Analyses of peat from this region will be found in the table of 
analyses, under localities numbered 2, 20 and 42. • 
LIME-SINK REGION. 
This extends from a few miles north of the middle of the 
straight line which divides Georgia from Florida, southward to 
Hernando County at least, with disconnected areas in Leon and 
Marion Counties. South of Hernando County it seems to pass 
gradually into the South Florida flatwoods (described farther on). 
Typically it is a region of rolling sandy pine woods with very little 
underbrush, with many approximately circular depressions or 
sinks, and very few streams or well-defined valleys. In the northern 
portion most of the depressions are perfectly dry, but farther south, 
where the altitude is less, some of them dip below the ground- 
water level and contain ponds or lakes. Near the few rivers which 
traverse the region large limestone springs are rather common. 
Clay seems to be absent from a large part of the lime-sink 
region, especially southward; and neither the sand nor the limestone 
offers much hindrance to the passage of water, which explains why 
most of the drainage is subterranean, and water is not seen at any 
considerable elevation above sea-level. This region is of interest 
geologically as containing all the hard-rock phosphate deposits in 
Florida which have been worked up to the present time. 
In a country with so little surface water, peat is of course scarce. 
Some samples collected near Inverness and Istachatta (localities 
16 and 17) might be regarded as belonging to this region, though 
they are very close to the edge of another region which will be 
described below. 
MIDDLE FLORIDA FLATWOODS. 
(plate 23.2) 
Under this name are mapped three disconnected areas, all 
lying within 35 miles of the Gulf coast, north of latitude 29 0 , 
This can be described briefly as a region of flat pine woods, with 
shallow ponds, most of which contain a dense growth of trees and 
shrubs, making a type of topography and vegetation commonly 
known as “bays.” (San Pedro Bay, a very large bay or aggre¬ 
gation of bays, in Madison, Taylor and Lafayette Counties, popu¬ 
larly supposed to be impenetrable, is in the very heart of this 
region.) There are a few sluggish streams, most of them hardly 
