DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL


western end of the cut at Dunnellon empties into fresh water, and
from Dunnellon thence to the sea of course the conditions again then
gradually do change. Naturally the western terminus of the canal
is in salt water. I wish to make the record clear.
 The CHAIRMAN. And to Dunnellon it will be fresh water?
 Mr. BUCxMAN. It is fresh water considerably below Dunnellon,
because after leaving Dunnellon it goes down the river, which is fresh
water. In other words, this canal is nothing more than a cut 29 miles
long, joining two rivers. Those two rivers of fresh water reach the
points where the cut joins them, and any flow must be in the cut from
the middle out, because that is the natural flow to the sea. The tend-
ency is to make those rivers more fresh at that point rather than less.
 The CHAInMAN. By reason of the feeding?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Of the surface water, which must run into them.
 The CHarIMaN. Has there been any more recent report from the
State geologist of Florida than those which we have referred to?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. This is the latest we have, Senator. I have a
report, which I hope to read in a moment, a letter from the Secretary
of the Interior, commenting upon the Federal Geological Survey's
informally expressed opinion, and if you will bear with me until I
reach it, I will read it.
 The CMHAIRAN. Very well. You will proceed then.
 Senator FLETcHa Is it not true if there is drainage after the
surface water strikes Ocala River passing on down southward that
water would pass underneath this canal
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Oh, yes; there would be fresh water under the canal.
 Senator FLETCHEB. How much?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Why, anywhere from, I should say, 100 to seven-
teen or eighteen hundred feet, depending entirely on local conditions.
 Senator FLETCHER Yes. It would not be interrupted by the canal?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. No more, Senator, than a scratch on the outside
of a water main would interrupt the flow of the water in the main.
 Senator FLETCHEn. All right.
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Shall I proceed?
 Senator FLETCHE. Yes; I think so.
 The CHAIMAN. Will you proceed, Mr. Buckman ?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Under date of August 26, 1935, the personal assist-
ant to the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Harry Slattery, in a letter
to Hon. J. Hardin Peterson, stated that in the opinion of the Geo-
logical Survey:
 There appears to be no reasonable doubt that serious adverse effects would be
produced upon the important underground water supplies of the Ocala limestone
in a wide zone extending outward from the canal line by the construction of a
sea-level canal along 13-B.
 The particular dangers herein discussed apply to a sea-level canal only and
not to a lock canal so constructed as to avoid deep cuts in the Ocala limestone
and thus to leave undisturbed the present water level in this important water-
bearing formation.
 Under date of February 13, 1936, Senator Fletcher addressed a
letter to the Secretary of the Interior, to which the Secretary of the
Interior replied under date of February 18, 1936. I quote both
letters in full. This is a letter to the Secretary of the Interior regard-
ing the Federal Government's Geological Survey, to which I should
like to refer.


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