284 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SUREY-I3TH ANNUAL REPORT

 TABLE 39.
Railroad Mileage in Central Florida, 1920, by Regions, Compared With Area and Population.

 Re mileage A Per cent of total
 Area Population Mileage
1. West coast islands ------------- 2 ( 0.1 0.3 0.1
2. Gulf hammock region --------- 127 10.3 4.8 6.8
3. Middle Florida flatwoods --___ 25 I 2.2 ? ? 1.3
4. Lime-sink region -------------- 365 15.5 I 24.6 19.6
5. Middle Fla. hammock belt ---- 43 1.4 j 4.0 2.3
6. Hernando hammock belt ----- 2S 1.3 I 2.6 1.5
7. Lake region ------------------ 547 I 27.5 24.6 29.5
S. WAestern flatwoods ----------- 390 13.5 I 27.5 21.0
9. Eastern flatwoods ------------ 225 25.8 I 4.8 12.0
10. East eoast strip --------------__ 121_ 2.8 6.7 j 6.5

 ROADS
 In the early (lays in central Florida, as in other long-leaf pine regions, roads cost practically nothing, for wagons could be driven almost anywhere through the open pine forests. Where small
streams had to he crossed it was necessary merely to cut a right of way through the swamp, and if the bottom was soft a layer of
poles could easily be put down. In the flatwoods and other low places ditches are often dug on both sides of the road to carry off the water from heavy rains faster than it would flow naturally, and the earth from them used at the same time to elevate the roadbed a little. Little-used roads through the flatwoods are often carpeted with a fine turf of a small sedge, Eleocharis Baldwinii, which is more agreeable for both pedestrians and vehicles than the bare sand.
 On the uplands where the sand is deep and dry it soon becomes loosened up by the wheels and rather difficult to pull through. The simplest way of getting around this is to start a new trail a little to one side, where the sand has not been stirred up. From this practice there often results a maze of approximately parallel roads, rather confusing to a stranger, who may have no way of knowing whether a fork in the road indicates a junction or a mere siding. (This of course is not peculiar to Florida, but can be seen also in Michigan and elsewhere.)
 Where it is not practicable to make new tracks, as for example where there are fences on both sides of the road (for wherever