186 
FLORIDA STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
FLAT LANDS. 
This term is applied to the imperfectly drained pinelands lying 
between the rolling sand plains and the Everglades or their bordering 
prairies, a discontinuous strip of country which on the east coast ex¬ 
tends from the north side of Palm Beach County to the vicinity of 
New River in Dade County. Its greatest width back of Hobe Sound 
is about ten miles. 
The flat lands have a soil of white sand, resembling that of the 
rolling sand plains, bearing a thin growth of pine trees separated in 
places by expanses of prairie a mile or more wide, a difference of a 
foot in elevation determining the character of the vegetation. In the 
rainy season these prairies are shallow lakes. In the flat lands are 
also occasional sloughs, pond holes, sometimes on'e-fourth mile or so 
across, which, being three to five feet below the general level of the 
country are never entirely dry. In places these deeper hollows sup¬ 
port good growths of cypress, and as the region of relatively perma¬ 
nent standing water, the Everglades, is approached, the pine and the 
cypress growths intermingle in most irregular fashion. In some places 
pines grow up to the edge of the prairie bordering the Everglades, in 
others a fringe of dwarf cypress separates pineland and swamp, and 
in still others are considerable areas supporting a good growth of 
cypress. 
On the west coast the surface of the country between the Ever¬ 
glades and the Gulf coast is even more monotonously level than on 
the east coast, the relations of swamp and dry land more irregular. 
Much of the pine grows in patches and strips sometimes miles in ex¬ 
tent, separated by cypress swamps. In consequence the timber-clad 
flat lands of the west coast are described as pine islands and cypress 
strands. Prairies are scattered through or fringe the pinelands, and 
toward the Everglades and north of the Big Cypress are great 
stretches of prairie that make excellent cattle ranges. 
ROCK RIDGES. 
There is a striking absence of rock outcrops over the greater part 
of that portion of the mainland included under the term southern 
Florida. And this absence becomes remarkable when one finds that 
the presence of solid rock a few feet below surface can often be proved 
by sounding with a rod. To outcrops of any extent the term rock 
ridges is here applied, though it should be understood that these rock 
ridges may not rise more than two feet above the level of the sur¬ 
rounding country, and probably in no case have an elevation of 
thirty-five feet above mean tide. 
