260 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORDA CANAL

have had a great deal of experience in water-supply work, that I, or
any man who has not made a specific study of this particular problem,
is really competent to give an opinion upon this particular subject.
With that explanation, I will say it is evident from the report of the
special board of experts examining this project, that they expect
Nature itself to prevent that lowering of the water table. There is
not sufficient available drainage, from that one ditch, to lower the
water table to that degree or to any serious degree.
 The CHAIMAN. Let us argue that a little bit. I noticed when you
qualified as an expert you really have had a very unusual training
beyond your engineering and your undergraduate work. Now, this
canal, when it is cut through the Ocala and goes 70 feet-is it through
the limestone, and then 30 feet below the level of the sea?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. It is that in some isolated spots, but not the average.
 The CHAIRMAN. That is, you have a cut of about a hundred feet?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. That would be the maximum or the peak.
 The CHAInMAN. I understand. As I understood the geology, the
Ocala outcropping is simply the peak of the great limestone deposit
in that section of the State; is that true?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. That is not exactly true, Senator. It is the upper-
most formation in that section of a number of limestone formations
in the State. There are various sorts of limestone. The term "Ocala
limestone" does not designate the location of a certain limestone but
a kind of limestone.
 The CHAiRxAN. There are other outcroppings of limestone south
of the canal
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Oh, yes; the Tampa, which is a different formation,
and it outcrops extensively south of the canal.
 The CHAMAN. How do they differ in formation
 Mr. BUCKMAN. As a rule it is not so porous.
 The CHARMAN. It is not so porous as Ocala
 Mr. BUCKMAN. As a rule it is not so porous as Ocala, but it has in
it a great many solution channels. It is of different porosity, and
there are what are called solution channels, or you might call them
cavities or channels underneath. A difference should be made in
that respect.
 The CHAIRMAN. In the language of a layman is this the situation:
When it rains in Florida, and I know how hard it can rain, that the
rainwater is taken up in a sense by the limestone as a sponge would
take it up and that from these crevices, these cavities, it percolates
out into channels which run off to make the ground water; is that
right
 Mr. BUCKMAN. That is not entirely correct. May I elaborate on
that -
 The CHAIMAN. I wish you would.
 Mr. BUCKMAN. In the first place, let me say that no general state-
ment of that kind could apply to any wide area in the State of
Florida. The formations are different. Sometimes they change
with startling abruptness from one area to another. I would like to
make that preface and to say that what would hold true at Ocala
would not hold true at Bradenton, and what would hold true at Talla-
hassee would not hold true at Miami, and what would hold true at
Miami would not hold true at Palatka necessarily. In general, over