SECOND ANNUAL REPORT-SOUTHERN EEORIDA. 
193 
south of the south end of Lake Okeechobee. 1 There is also known 
to be a rock ridge running north from Long Key, reaching as far 
north as Miami; hence, it is probable that the Everglades occupy a 
series of comparatively shallow rock hollows. Whether these hollows 
were as deep when the Everglades first occupied them, as they now 
are, that is, whether they have been deepened by solution through 
underground drainage, whether they represent original inequalities of 
deposition of the lime rock, or whether they are buried shallow valleys, 
can not be determined from the evidence at hand. It is probable, how¬ 
ever, that the deepening and enlarging effect of underground solution 
has been exaggerated. 
Bed rock lies five feet below low tide level at Jewfish Creek; eight 
feet at Flamingo; five to ten feet in Whitewater Bay; thirteen feet at 
the mouth of Shark River; thirteen feet at the mouth of Lostmans 
River; twelve feet on Chokoluskee Island and five to ten feet at Ever¬ 
glade. 
Origin of EvergladesThe Everglades owe their existence pri¬ 
marily to an abundant rainfall and to the slight elevation of southern 
Florida. Even were there no basin-like structure whatever, and were 
the bed rock surface absolutely flat along an east-west line, the present 
rainfall, the sluggish drainage, and the luxuriant growth of vegetation 
would result in a swamp forming on the center of the peninsula from 
Lake Okeechobee. In short, the Everglades resemble in origin the 
Dismal Swamps of North Carolina and Virginia. 
The peat found throughout the large part of the Everglades rests 
on rock, sand or marl. In places soundings indicate more than one 
peat bed, with sand between. The relations of peat and sand to bed 
rock west of Fort Lauderdale are shown by the following generalized 
section along the drainage canal there; the section is based on data 
furnished by J. H. Newman, engineer. 
WATER I I SAN® MUCK USKSTONE hr- 1 ■ ‘1 
Figure 3.—Section of Everglades west of Fort Lauderdale. 
CYPRESS SWAMPS. 
Most of the many tracts of cypress scattered over southern Florida 
call for no especial notice. Probably the finest cypress grows north- 
1 R. E. Rose, State Chemist, in a note to the writer says no such rock ridge 
was found by the South Canal surveys, and near the south shore of Lake 
Okeechobee rock is over ten feet below surface. Twenty miles south of the lake 
rock was found at six feet. 
7g 
