PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT.

is approximately that which would be produced by normal erosion; lakes, ponds, and big springs being scarce. The surface varies from nearly flat near the coast to quite hilly in the interior, especially in Walton County, where elevations of nearly 300 feet are known. (In Gadsden County there is a small area over 300 feet above sea-level, which is the highest recorded elevation in the state.) The uplands are mostly covered with long-leaf pine forests, containing a large proportion of black-jack oak (Quercus Catesbaci), and the bottoms of the valleys are occupied by narrow creek and branch swamps.
All conditions are here favorable to the formation of peat, except the topography. Lakes being scarce, and the valleys mostly narrow, there is no room for extensive accumulations of peat. Fairly good peat occurs however in some dense tyty swamps (locality No. 39), and some of the estuaries mentioned under the preceding region miglht almost as well be regarded as belonging to this ene.
WEST FLORIDA LIMESTONE REGION.
As here treated this is chiefly confined to Holmes and Jackson Counties, but embraces quite a variety of scenery, from sandy open pine forests with cypress ponds to red clay hills and limestone outcrops with dense hardwood forests. The limestone (representing various Oligocene horizons) crops out extensively in the vicinity of the Chipola River, and its influence is shown elsewhere in the numerous ponds in the pine woods, and in a few big springs. A considerable part of the drainage is subterranean, and consequently surface streams are much less frequent than in the region last described.
On account of the scarcity of streams and lakes, and the shallow-ness of the cypress ponds, nearly all of which dry up in the spring, the quantity of peat in this region is insignificant. For various other reasons not so well understood, peat dioes not seem to form so readily in calcareous as in non-calcareous regions, other things being equal.
MIDDLE FLORIDA HAMMOCK BELT.
(PLATES 7, 8, 27.2. FIGS. 1-5,. 19)
Beginning on the west in Liberty County, this extends approximately parallel with the Gulf coast about to Ocala, with an outIying area of similar character centering around Brooksville. It is an even more diversified region than the preceding, embracing

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