DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL


the area of the Ocala limestone formation, and only in general, deduc-
tions as to any specific area are unsafe, that would be the case.
 Rain falls on the soil, which is usually sandy and porous, most of it
percolates through the soil and strikes the limestone, which is moder-
ately porous.
 The CHAIRMAN. It is what
 Mr. BUCKMAN. It is moderately porous. It goes into the limestone
and continues to sink until it reaches some cavity or solution channel,
by means of which it can find egress above sea level, at sea level, or
below sea level, into the streams of the State, or into the sea. That
is, what rain water does not run off from the surface and is not
evaporated immediately upon falling and is not transpired through
the leaves of the trees; that is where the rain water is now going. It
goes into the sea.
 Now, the fact is that it is temporarily retarded on account of the
friction which it encounters in passing through the soil and rock,
by which it is- caused to hump itself up slightly, and the amount it
humps itself up is an expression of what we call the water table, and
the amount of that hump will depend upon the amount and frequency
of the rainfall, and the friction encountered in its passage to the sea.
But the point which I wish to illuminate, sir, is this: That the enor-
mous rainfall which falls upon the peninsula of Florida, especially
the central portion of the peninsula of Florida-
 Senator FLETCHER (interposing). It is about 55 inches?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Is about 52 inches, Senator, on the average; is being
now directly drained into the sea through underground channels
that you do not see.
 Senator FLniZCHE Both the Atlantic and the Gulf?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Both the Atlantic and the Gulf. The State stands
like this [illustrating] as a table, which is somewhat porous. Rain
falls on it like this, and it is running out.
 We have in the bottom, for instance, of Lake George, enormous
springs, springs of combined capacities many times greater than
Silver Spring. We have springs in the bottoms of our other rivers.
We have some springs, as you probably know, off of St. Augustine
with perfectly incalculable capacities, so great that even ships go
in 3 miles from the coast line and lower buckets overboard to get
fresh water. That is all a part of this immense drainage, compared
with which the drainage of this small ditch 250 feet wide is insignifi-
cant.
 The canal, in my humble opinion-I stated I did not think I was
competent to pass on this, because it is a highly specific technical
matter-I do not see how the canal, if it were four times its size could
drain a fraction of the total water falling on this portion of the State,
which is now being drained direct into the bottoms of our rivers and
into the sea. That is the point which I wished to make.
 The CHAIRMAN. What about the water which supplies Silver
Springs?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. The Geological Survey is authority for the state-
ment that all water that emerges from Silver Springs falls on the
ground within a few miles.
 The CHAIRMAN. It does not come out from that Ocala rock


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