1881, LZ, Trans. N. V. Ac. Scz. 
vary in size from half an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, and 
consist of feldspar, quartz, porphyry, and basalt. On the western side 
of Haskell County the copper bed is reached not far from the Brazos 
river ; and west of the copper a great belt of gypsum hills, several miles 
in width, extends, northward, parallel with the copper bed, into the 
Indian Territory. Gypsum occurs there in most of its forms, including 
selenite which has been locally mistaken for mica. 
On reaching a scene of attempted mining operations in search of sup- 
posed veins of copper, a very short examination convinced me that no 
vein would ever be discovered. Denudation has laid the bed bare, 
sweeping away the larger portion uncovered and leaving only patches ; 
but these were sufficient to give a clear conception of the mode of occur- 
rence. The copper-bearing stratum is an ashy-colored clay shale, more 
or less tinged with green, the upper portion showing the deep green 
carbonate of copper, usually two or three inches thick. Overlying this 
stratum is a cap-rock of gypsiferous sandstone, about three feet thick, 
with a layer ¥% to 4 inch thick, impregnated with carbonate of copper, 
as though it had soaked it up from below. Underneath the gray or 
green bed an intensely red clay shale is generally found. Nuggets of 
copper are scattered over the surface of the red bed, with pieces of cu- 
prified wood and nuggets of iron pyrites. In the wood the original 
structure in many instances is perfectly preserved, also appearing cupri- 
fied in all stages of decay, as though it had become half rotten before 
the petrifaction was effected. The overlying sandstone frequently con- 
tains biscuit-like concretions of gypsum. Juniper trees abound and also 
cover the gypsum hills, the perfectly preserved cuprified wood, with its 
knots and bark, showing a fac-simile of that growth. I found in the 
gray bed fragments of wood partially unaltered, as though it had just 
commenced to absorb copper; also large pieces of coal, three or four 
inches or more in diameter, the cracks of the same piece being filled 
with crystalline carbonate of copper, or with white gypsum, thus appear- 
ing veined with copper and gypsum. In parts of the bed remaining the 
resemblance to piles of ashes and charcoal is strikingly deceptive. In 
one shaft, sunk to a depth of about thirty feet, the horizontal position 
of the strata was confirmed, the shaft passing through the cupriferous 
gray bed, and then through a succession of layers of red shale and soft 
red sandstone, in which not a trace of copper was found. The gray 
stratum extends seventy-five feet or more under a point of the gypsum 
hill. In a tunnel traversing this stratum I noticed occasionally pebbles 
belonging to the gravel drift. ‘This copper'formation has a general 
north and south course, usually less than fifty yards in width, and was 
traced. for a distance of eight or ten miles to the southern boundary ot 
Haskell County. 
