262 DOCUMENTARY HISTOzY OF THE FLOIDA CANAL

 Mr. BUCKxMA. Yes. it comes out from that Ocala rock. It goes in
and comes out.
 The CHAIamN. Is it your opinion that Silver Springs will be un-
affected by this?
 Mr. BucxxwN. I think totally unaffected. There are two effects.
I understand you mean the flow of Silver Springs?
 The CHAIRMAN. Yes.
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Now, the discharge of Silver Springs comes down a
little waterway called Silver Springs Run, and the mouth of that run
is now at the Oklawaha River. The river at that point will be
slightly lowered by the canal, and a dam is proposed at that point to
keep the normal level of that discharge running from the springs
intact. But in my opinion there would be otherwise no effect upon it.
 The CHAIRMAN. Let us take another phase of it.
 Senator FirTCHER. That water now does not run across the St.
Johns River, but it runs down from Silver Springs to the Oklawaha
and then down the Oklawaha into St. Johns. It does not go south
 Mr. BucKxMN. It does not go south. It goes east and north.
 The CHAIRMAN. Let us take the other situation. When you cut
down to this depth you cut across these channels, and those channels
will be left open, and what is to prevent seepage into them, or the
actual passage into them of the salt water, which will be found in the
sea-level canalI
 Mr. BUCKxAN. Senator, there can be no salt water in the canal.
The cut of the canal empties into fresh water at the Withlacoochee,
which is perfectly fresh at that point. It could have no salt intrusion
from the surface water level at that point. It empties into the St.
Johns River on the east end, which is perfectly fresh at this point,
and therefore there could be no salt intrusion from the surface water
at that end.
 Now, the salt water underlying that portion of the peninsula all
over, so far as we know, is at the depth of approximately 1,550 feet.
The canal goes only thirty feet. It would be over 1,500 feet above
that salt water.
 The CHAIxMAN. All right. That is a good argument. But now,
aren't you going to have salt water creep back from the west end of
the canal?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. The general experience of sea-level canals has been
to the contrary. You have a slight current setting seaward toward
both ends of the cut due to the nature of the drainage of the rainfall
on the stream area. Now, in lock canals for some reason not entirely
explained to the satisfaction of experts, salt water does sometimes
creep up canals; that is, in locking a ship, it goes up into the pool of
the canal, but that has not been the experience in sea-level canals.
 The CHAIMAN. Then your professional opinion is that at the
western end of that canal that there would be no brine nor be no salt
water up into the land areas of the canal ?
 Mr. BucKMAN. I do not see how it could possibly be so.
 The CHAIRMAN. You say it goes out 27 miles, does it not, into the
Gulf?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Yes.
 The CHAImaN. And of course it would be salt water.
 Mr. BUCKMAN. I beg your pardon. Maybe I misunderstood your
question. When I said the western end of the canal, I meant the