GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 113

















 Fig. 16. Scene in Choocochattee Prairie, about 2 miles south-southeast of Brooksville, looking toward the sink which drains it. A few sheep can be. seen grazing. Feb. ii, 1909.

below the. summit of a hill a few miles northwest of Brooksville, and about 50 feet deep, was observed in March, 1915, to be dry to the bottom.
 There are quite a number of lakes, some of them small and
permanent, much like those in the lake region to be described presently, and others large and shallow, becoming prairie basins in dry seasons or whenever their lime-sink outlets are suf ficiently free from obstructions. (Figure 16 shows the sink end of such a basin, a type more frequent in the Middle Florida hammock belt and Tallahassee red hills.*) To the former class belongs Mirror Lake, previously mentioned. It covers a few acres near the top of a hill, and if the water should rise only five feet higher than it was in April, 1920 (which was probably about the average stage), it would run over and down into a dry sandy valley about 50 feet lower. The lake doubtless has a relatively impervious stratum of cla'
under it.
 Soils. -Most of the soil seems to be above the central Florida average in fertility. In the most typical portions, within a few miles

 *This type of lake basin was discussed at considerable length by Dr. Sellards in the 3rd Annual Report, pp. 43-76, pl. 6-9. (Reprinted with a few additions in the 6th Annual Report.) See also 6th Ann. Rep., p. 271.