PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT.

ably indicate ancient peat deposits.* In June, I909, a resident of Enterprise, Volusia Co., sent to the State Chemist for analysis a saniple of black plastic material which looked like good peat (but was found to contain only about 33% of vegetable matter), which he stated to have been brought up from 50 feet below the surface in driving a well near that place.
On the shores of Apalachicola Bay for several miles west of Apalachicola there crops out beneath a few feet of Pjistoce'.e sand, a dark brown, almost black substance which is worn by the waves into rock-like shapes, and at a little distance looks like rock. (Fig. 29). But it is only slightly indurated, and a lump of it can easily be pulverized in one's fingers. The dark color is due to carbonaceous material (and not to iron, as one might suppose at first glance), as shown by the following analysis of a small sample of fhe material, made by A. M. Henry, assistant state chemist. (This analysis is made on a moisture-free basis).
Percent
Silca ........................................................ .95.62
Volatile or combustible matter ................................. 3.33
lUndetermined (mostly clay) .................................. .1.05
I00.00
Scattered through this deposit are the remains of stumps(which should not be confused with the more modern stumps which are common on the same coast, where they have been exposed by the gradual encroachment of the sea upon the land'), all of which seems to indicate that this is an ancient swamp deposit of some kind, though why it should be so highly charged with silica is not obvious. Its depth is not known, as the base of it does not seem to be exposed.
Material of similar appearance and presumably similar composition seems to underlie the whole of the Trial Ridge of East Florida and Southeast Georgia, as stated on page 225. The "hardpan" which is said to underlie parts of the South Florida flatwoods, a few feet below the sandy surface, may be of similar nature. It is interesting to note that all such land is very little used for agricultural purposes at present.
The most interesting fossil peat deposit which has come to the notice of the writer is in Santa Rosa County, about 2 mile north of Milton, where modern gullies have exposed a section which may be described about as follows. (-See fig. 30).
*5Se second aronual report ef this Sv'rvey, p. 153. 1909.

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