117 
soil of the Guadelupe valley is of exhaustless fertility, the alluvial deposit of 
black humus being from three to seven feet deep in many places. In the bluffs 
aad plateau above the second bottom are immense beds of marl, the remains of 
myriads of minute sea-shells.” Nueces: “ The soil is chiefly black, sandy loam, 
capable of producing corn, cotton, tobacco, sweet potatoes, and castor-oil bean 
in abundance, but owing to the uncertainty of the seasons but little is cultivated. 
_I think the castor bean ‘could be cultivated with success, as it stands the drought 
well.” ie ei 
There are few counties without sufficient timber for home uses, and when 
deficient its absence is partially supplied with rock and stone for building and 
fencing purposes. Trinity reports superior timber andthe finest pineries to be 
found in the State. In Fayette and Lavaca the timber is heavy, principally 
upon the Colorado, which abounds with pecan, ash, hickory, cotton-wood, wild- 
peach, hackberry, elm, cedar, and various oaks. In Navarro one-third of the 
area is in timber, the largest red cedars, some of which are 75 feet long and nine 
feet in circumference, cutting seven 10-feet rail cuts to the tree. Hardin county: 
three-fourths in timber, fine pines, oaks, walnut, hickory, gum, mulberry, with 
heavy cypress on the streams; affording lumber of all kinds and shingles in 
quantity. In Titus they have walnut, gum, pecan, hackberry, sassafras, per- 
simmon, oaks in variety, hickory and pine in abundanee, with seven or eight 
steam mills in operation turning timber into lumber. There is a scarcity of tim- 
ber in Lampasas and several other counties, but rocks and stones, from common 
sandstone to beautiful variegated marble, are found in abundance. 
Of minerals iron appears to be the most abundant, so far as the State has 
been developed in this regard, and is found in quantity in Grayson, Titus, 
Cherokee, Anderson, Nacogdoches, Williamson, Gillespie, Burnet, Llano, and 
other counties, with comparatively little effort at development. The only large 
foundry now in operation in northern Texas is located in Marion county, and 
supplies all that section of the State with ware and machinery manufactured 
from the domestic ores. Cherokee is rich in iron ore; during the war two 
foundries were established, but one of which’ is now in operation—cause, want 
of capital. The iron ore of Burnet and Llano is said to yield 75 per cent. of 
pure metal, equal to the best Swedish iron, but is not worked—no capital or 
enterprise. Our Anderson reporter says: ‘“ There is sufficient iron ore in this 
county to last the United States a century.” Quantities of building and other 
stone are reported in Coryelle and Williamson, with gypsum and water cement 
in the latter, copperas in Grayson. Salt, lead, zinc, copper, soapstone, and 
marble are reported in Burnet, a block of the latter having been furnished for 
the Washington monument, at Washington, D. C. rats belt 
Salt is found in several other counties: Our Cameron correspondent writes : 
In the prairie lands salt-ponds and lagoons abound, where in dry seasons salt fs deposited 
in immense quantities. During the late war Texas and Upper Louisiana were: supplied from 
this source. In addition there are two salt lakes, one called Sal Viejo, or Old Salt, on the 
edge of this county and in Hidalgo, and another called El Sal del Rey, or the King’s Salt, a 
few miles to the westward, in Hidalgo county. An analysis of the latter by Dr. D. Riddle, 
of the State geological survey, in-1860, resulted as follows: 
Matierimigha@igues eas ot. dee oe iad. oo sea eee eee emer es 2 ae. 0.5103 
Sulphate magnesia./.--....-..-- “Bids es nee Ges eee gees Hebooce see ee 7 Trace. 
Chioride soditniae see ease ice at's oR ee 9 ho SPE - 899.0897 
| é 99.6 
which I believe to be the purest salt in the world; and in quantity it is inexhaustible. Until 
1848 the Lake Sal del Rey furnished salt to nearly all of northern Mexico. Immense quan- 
tities were used in the process of extracting silver—the Patio process; and even up to 1858 
I have noticed in the large mining towns of northern Mexico the plaéard of ‘‘salt from the 
Sal del Rey for sale,’ in the shops. All the labor required to obtain it is, in the dry season, 
to break it out of the cake into which the lake crystallizes, to the thickness of five or six inches, 
which breaking is done with crowbars; or, in the wet season, to wade out into the lake and 
break it out, the depth of water sometimes being as much as three feet. ‘The shell, or cake 
