PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT. 
223 
same as if there was a barrier beach a few miles out. This whole 
coast is bordered by marshes a mile or two in width. 
For a flat and calcareous region, this contains considerable peat, 
around lakes, rivers and estuaries. Descriptions of two of the 
interesting peat localities of this region (Hog Island and Panas- 
offkee) and analyses of peat from one of them, will be found in 
subsequent pages. 
LAKE REGION. 
(PLATES 9, 12, 24-26, 27.I. FIGS. 20, 23, 26) 
This is peculiar to Florida, and occupies the “backbone” of the 
peninsula for a distance of some 200 miles, with a maximum width 
of about 50 miles in the latitude of Leesburg and Sanford. Its 
topography is much like that of the lime-sink region on a large 
scale. There are plenty of rounded hills and depressions, some¬ 
times giving differences of elevation of over 100 feet within half 
a mile, but very few streams or valleys. Near the center of the 
region, particularly in the southern part of Lake County, some of 
the hills probably rise to a little over 200 feet above sea-level.* 
The depressions are nearly all occupied by permanent lakes, 
of which there are many thousands in the region, varying in size 
from a few acres to over 50 square miles, and presumably deeper 
in proportion to area than those in most other parts of the state. 
The smaller ones are generally nearly circular, but the larger ones 
are more irregular in outline, as can be seen from a good map. 
The surface is nearly everywhere sand, underlaid at a depth of 
several feet by a pinkish or mottled clay, which in some places is 
pure enough to be an important source of kaolin, and in others is 
gritty, and makes an excellent road-surfacing material. Limestone 
or marl is seen in only a few places, such as around springs and 
at certain points on the St. Johns River; but the vegetation of most 
of the low hammocks (which are usually found in the neighborhood 
of the larger lakes) seems to indicate that there is some calcareous 
material not far from the surface in such places. The topography 
is probably due at least in part to the dissolving away of limestone 
long ago, though there are doubtless other factors connected with 
it which are not so well understood. 
^Elevations of four or five hundred feet have been claimed for points in 
Lake County by seemingly reliable people, but these estimates are probably not 
based on actual measurements. No topographic map of any part of this region 
has ever been published, r ^ far as known to the writer. 
