406 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLOBIDA CANAL

 put the Erie Canal out of business it would do so, for even if not a pound of
 freight is hauled over the canal, ts existence in navigable condition keeps
 rail rates down. As a matter of fact, there is a movement now on foot, re-
 putedly sponsored by the New York Central, to restore the tolls on the Erie
 Canal, which were abolished in 1881. The Pennsylvania Bailroad succeeded in
 putting the canals of that State out of business, and spokesmen of the Penn-
 sylvania are today opposing the Florida CanaL They do not want any more
 competition for east-west tramf. And, since railroad interests are tied to-
 gether by strong though often invisible bonds, the railroads running to and
 through Florida don't want the canal, either.

 xrERrs aOsro THAT no DAKA* wM EX m OAUI
 I am not prepared to charge the railroad interests with starting the report
 that the canal will impair Florida's water supply, though all of the opponents
 of the canal, political and commercial, have made the most of Dr. Gunter's
 remark that if-note that "if"-sea water from the canal should penetrate
 the underground fresh water supplies of the State it would have a serious effect.
 Of course it would. Nobody can deny that. But Dr. Herman Gunter, Flor-
 ida's State geologist, did not say that the salt water was going to come in.
 He only said "if" it did.
 But the special board of geologists and engineers, appointed by the War
 Department, to study the question raised by Dr. Gunter, emphatically says
 there isn't going to be any influx of salt water, nor any important impairment
 of the fresh water level, by reason of the sea-level canal. I have before me
 as I write, one of the 15 copies of this geological report.
 It has always seemed to me that Florida's main water problem was not
 how to conserve fresh water, but rather how to get rid of it; and the board
 bears out that belief.
 "No serious adverse effects on the underground water supply need be an-
 ticipated from the construction of a sea-level canal", says Brig. Gen. G. B.
 Pillsbury, Acting Chief of Engineers, in transmitting the Geological report.
 The alarm aroused by this water question is quite natural until the facts
 are clear. Briefly, the sea-level canal is to be a connection between two fresh-
 water rivers, the Oklawaha and the Withlacoochee, by means of a 27-mile
 cut through the central limestone ridge, the watershed of Florida. The Okla-
 waha drains the eastern slope of this ridge, the Withlacoochee the western.
 Both are fresh-water rivers, rather sluggish, almost at sea-level at their
 sources. The Oklawaha empties into another fresh-water river, the St. Johns,
 which in turn empties Into the Atlantic. The St. Johns is now navigable for
 craft up to 30 feet draft from its mouth to Jacksonville. There is a 16-foot
 channel for 40 miles above Jacksonville (or below, if you call the top of the
 map "north"). At Palatka, the water of the St Johns is fresh, because the
 tremendous flow of fresh water from its drainage basin overcomes the pressure
 of salt water from the sea.

 rFowaOA HAS ABUNDAN E OWr H AIN WATXE
 Remember that central Florida has 52 Inches of rainfall annually. This rain-
 water has to flow off to the sea or Florida would be submerged. It finds its
 outlet in every possible way, including subterranean watercourses through the
 underlying limestone which discharge far out at sea. I have myself drunk
 fresh water dipped from the Atlantic Ocean 8 miles off Anastasia Island at St.
 Augustine. So powerful is the pressure behind this fresh-water run-off that
 it bubbles to the surface through the salt sea water without becoming tainted.
 The sea-level canal, the geologists say, will not tap any important subter-
 ranean watercourse when the valleys of the Oklawaha and the Withlacoochee
 are deepened to 80 feet below sea-level; if it does, it will be no trick at all to
 block them off. Probably the flow of surface water into the cut will make it
 necessary to deepen many of the shallow farm wells in the immediate vicinity
 of the canal, but that is the only impairment of the fresh-water supply that
can be anticipated. As for agriculture, the water which nourishes crops in
Florida does not come from these underground streams but from rainfall on
its way through to the drainage outlets. No chance, says the geological board,
of affecting the water supply of any Florida city. Indeed, some of those are
having salt-water trouble now and, canal or no canal, will have to go deeper
or farther for pure water.