SOME FLORIDA LAKES AND LAKE BASINS.

The surface soil in the basin is quite generally a gray sand darkened by admixture of organic matter. In the lower parts of the lake, quite generally covered by water, more or less muck or peat occurs formed from 'the accumulation of aquatic vegetation. Sand lighter in color and lacking the organic matter occurs at a depth of I Y2 or 2 feet to3 or 4 feet. Beneath this sand is the usual red sandy clay.
This lake as already mentioned became dry, or nearly so, in the early spring of 1907. It was partly filled by the summer rains of the same year, but became dry or nearly so again during the summer of 19o9. The accompanying photograph of this lake was taken July 5, 1909 and shows an unusually low water stage of the lake for that season of the year. (P1. 7, Fig.I).
LAKE LAFAYETTE.
Lafayette Basin or Lake Lafayette lies in the eastern part of Leon County between Tallahassee and Chaires. The basin begins three and one half miles east of Tallahassee, and extends to within one mile of Chaires, having a total length of about five and one-half miles, and a width of one-half to one mile. An arm of the lake extends north from near the east end of the lake. The bottom of the basin is nearly level with the exception of occasional slight depressions. The tributaries to the lake are flat-bottomed streams with relatively broad valleys and no well defined channel. The soil in these stream valleys is a sandy loam, and the streams are ordinarily dry, carrying water only during the rainy season.
A drainage sink in this basin occurs near the west end of the lake along the northern border (See Fig. 3). The sink when measured in September, 19o9, was found to have a total depth of 75 feet. The sink is found, as is usual in this type of lake basin, facing a prominent bluff. A second sink is formed beyond the lake border, thus indicating the enlargement of the lake basin in that direction by subsidence, due to underground solution. This new sink is one hundred yards or more in circumference, and when formed carried down to the lake level, land which stood fifty feet or more above the lake and was being used previous to the subsidence as a cemetery.
That part of the lake basin which surrounds the sink lies at a slightly lower level than the more remote parts of the basin and is the first to be submerged at the approach of the rainy season. This area is entirely devoid of trees, and during the dry season becomes a praire. The greater part of the basin lying to the south of the railroad is thickly set with small cypress trees.

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