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Geology of the Trinity Country^ Texas. 215 



Muriate of magnesia, 



Bicarbonate of soda 



Bicarbonate of lime, 



Hydriodatc of soda. 

 Experiments indicate the absence of sulphuric acid, iron and 

 potash. The presence of iodine confers upon this water medi- 

 cinal qualities of a most valuable kind. The same element has 

 been detected m the Saratoga water, New York. The taste of 

 the Salinilla water is unusually grateful and pleasant. 



Near a quarter of a mile lower down the Salinilla creek, is a 

 small sulphur spring, in the water of which I detected 



Sulphuretted hydrogen, 



Carbonic acid. 



Muriate of soda, 



Muriate of magnesia, 



Bicarbonate of iron, , 



OT > mere traces, 



bilica, 



The dark sediment which subsides from this water upon stand- 

 ing, is mainly sulphuret of iron. The specific gravity of the 

 water is 1.00 66. By evaporating 1000 grains of water, a saline 

 residue is obtained weighing 2 /„ grains. 



Embellished as this site is with the most beautiful of Texas 

 scenery, it may some day become a place of fashionable resort. 

 To me the whole seemed like a landscape garden. The prairies 

 every where presented a bewildering variety of flowers, rare, 

 beautiful and nameless. Deer, and wild turkeys are numerous in 

 the surrounding solitudes, and the clear lakes a few miles to the 

 south abound with fine large fish. 



In the banks of the Trinity, I often noticed deposits of a red- 

 dish brown iron stone, apparently a good iron ore ] but my inves- 

 ligations respecting its extent or abundance, and the facilities 

 which it might offer for the manufacture of iron, were not such 

 as to allow me to speak decisively. Most of the small fountains 

 which issue at frequent intervals from the steep banks of the 

 river, above the brown coal formations, are strongly tinctured 

 with iron, a circumstance which would seem to indicate abun- 

 dance of iron ore. 



This whole region abounds to an extent perhaps unexampled 

 in silicified or opalized wood : — wood changed to stone. Small 

 oblong pieces are constantly met with on the higher portions of 



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