206 
FLORIDA state: geological survey. 
Record of well at Key West. Feet. 
Yellowish oolite . 0- 25 
White yellowish or light gray limestone, with oolitic lumps. 50-175 
Fine white lime-sand rock ... 175-200 
White porous oolitic and sandy limestone. 200-275 
White more or less solid limestone... 300-375 
Friable soft gray lime-sand rock. 400-675 
Yellowish to brownish lime-sand rock, Orbitoides , 800-850 feet. 700-1075 
Light gray, partly dense and partly porous limestone.ilOO-1175 
Gray lime-sand rock .1200-1350 
Yellowish gray lime-sand rock, with some porous limestone.1375-1450 
Lime-sand rock varying in color and compactness, with strata of dense 
limestone .1475-1975 
Yellowish to light brownish gray limestone, rather solid, with porous 
portions . 1975-2000 
The most noteworthy feature of this log is the absence of beds of 
quartz sand, though such beds have a total thickness of over 400 feet 
at Key Vaca, and over 200 feet at Big Pine Key, which are respec¬ 
tively forty miles and twenty-five miles east of Key West. Certain 
peculiarities of the samples described by Hovey, notably the abundance 
of oolitic material at various depths, taken with the reported incom¬ 
plete casing of the well throw doubt on the value of the record, but 
probably no considerable bed of quartz sand was penetrated. 
The general aspect of the organic remains, bits of molluscan shells, 
corals, foraminifera, echinoids and coralline algae, led Hovey to be¬ 
lieve that the rocks originally were shoal water deposits. The samples 
show that during Miocene and Pliocene time as during Pleistocene 
and Recent time, much quartz sand did not get as far south and west as 
Key West. Hovey thought the Pleistocene beds at Key West might 
be less than fifty feet thick, but was unable to separate Pliocene and 
Miocene. The top of the Vicksburg group he placed at 700 feet, thus 
making the total thickness of the Pliocene and Miocene less than 675 
feet. 
Buck Key:—A record of the Buck Key well given from memory 
by the driller, James Sykes, of Fort Myers, supplemented by samples 
saved at odd depths, furnishes the following section: 
Record of well of W. H. Knowles, Buck Key. Feet. 
Sand and shells .. 0- 50 
Brown crystalline limestone with cherty streaks and sand grains. 50- 60 
White quartz sand, with marl and shell fragments. 60- 63 
Brownish sandy limestone with shell fragments. 63- 65 
Dark greenish marl . 65-145 
White quartz sand, with shell bed at 150 feet. 145-275 
Medium dark greenish marly sand, with shell beds, and streaks of 
lighter marl ... 275-490 
White to brownish and soft to hard limestone, with a few shell casts, 
hard brownish limestone contains many siliceous grains .. 490-605 
