26 
FLORIDA STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
ject a study realize that the geologic formations and structure in Flor¬ 
ida are in reality very diversified. It is to throw some light on these 
that the present report is published. An effort has been made to 
bring together information relating to the geology of Florida and to 
supplement the knowledge already available with such observations 
as were possible in the time allotted to the work. However, this 
report is to be regarded as preliminary, and it is expected that further 
work will not only add new facts, but will also lead to some revision 
and modification of the views now held. In the body of the report 
several unsolved problems are indicated, but it should be borne in 
mind that not all of them are enumerated. 
Sources of Information:—As is usually true of reports covering 
large areas, the data incorporated here are derived from many differ¬ 
ent sources. All previous literature has been carefully studied and 
the different views compared and- brought up to date, giving credit 
to the respective investigators. Particularly helpful has been the 
work of Dr. W. H. Dali, of the U. S. Geological Survey, who has 
made extensive investigations of the paleontology of the State, and, 
in 1892, published a treatise of nearly a hundred pages, incorporated 
in Bulletin 84, of the TJ. S. Geological Survey, in which he outlined 
the stratigraphic geology of the State as well as it could then be done. 
A later report by Dr. Dali was published in the transactions of the 
Wagner Free Institute of Science. This publication is primarily 
paleontologic, but it also contains a resume of the geology and the 
stratigraphy of the State. These papers have furnished much valu¬ 
able information which has been incorporated in this report and is 
specifically acknowledged elsewhere. The work has been carried on 
under the immediate supervision of Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan, of the 
U. S. Geological Survey. In addition to exercising general over¬ 
sight of the work. Dr. Vaughan has examined and identified the fos¬ 
sils collected during the progress of the investigation. He has very 
generously placed his own extensive notes—accumulated during a 
series of years—at the disposal of the writers, and has aided both by 
advice and assistance in the field and in the office. The investigations 
of Drs. Dali and Vaughan have been of great value because they have 
formed a basis for all subsequent work. Other geologists, prominent 
among whom are Dr. E. A. Smith, Prof. Angelo Heilprin, and Prof. 
Louis and Dr. Alexander Agassiz, have added much to the knowledge 
of the geology of Florida. 
After the first discovery of phosphate in Florida Mr. George H. 
Eldridge was sent by the National Survey to make detailed investiga¬ 
tions of the deposits of that material. He obtained much valuable 
data, but, unfortunately, did not live to prepare his final report. His 
