PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT. 
240 
As in the case of the Apalachicola River estuary, many of these 
herbs are confined to irregular treeless strips, or marshes (see plate 
22), but it would hardly be worth while to describe the marsh and 
swamp areas separately. 
In the swamp of the Blackwater River near Milton the peat is 
as much as 20 feet deep, which probably indicates a comparatively 
recent subsidence of that amount, as in the case of the mud-filled 
estuary of the Apalachicola River. Furthermore, peat would 
hardly form at a depth of 20 feet below sea-level (though in this 
case one cannot be sure that the lower layers are not the remains 
of logs which drifted down the river and sank in centuries past). 
To all external appearances the peat at this locality is of very good 
quality, except that it has sandy layers in it, probably representing 
seasons of excessive floods. But even the best samples (see analy¬ 
ses under locality no. 7) were more than half mineral matter, and 
therefore utterly unfit for fuel. 
i 
ESCAMBIA AND YELLOW RIVERS. 
The tributaries of the Escambia River flow through about as 
much red clay country in the coastal plain of Alabama as do those 
of the Choctawhatchee, and the Yellow River, although a smaller 
stream, must carry mud at times, to judge from its name and the 
character of the country about its head-waters; but I have never 
seen either of these as muddy as the Choctawhatchee usually is, and 
the vegetation of their estuaries resembles that of the Blackwater 
River just described much more than anything else I have seen, so 
that it will be convenient, if not strictly accurate, to discuss it here. 
A few minutes was spent at the mouth of each of these rivers 
the latter part of September, 1910, and the following plants noted: 
TREES 
Taxodium imbricarium (pond cy- Nyssa biflora (black gum) 
press) Magnolia glauca (bay) 
Finns Elliottii (slash pine) 
SHRUBS 
Fraxinus Caroliniana (ash) 
Hypericum fasciculatum 
Smilax laurifolia (bamboo vine) 
