SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 33 
About 3% miles southwest of Vinton is a typical Gulf coast salt 
dome yielding petroleum, the first dome discovered with oil on its 
flanks. The dome makes a low mound at the surface 
Vinton. with a lake in the center and has a salt core about a 
Elevation 16 feet. mile in diameter. It was looked upon as a likely 
nti lation 1,989. 
New Orleans 243 miles. Source of petroleum, especially as it had oil and gas 
seepages on its summit, and some oil had been 
obtained in shallow wells near by. Paailline began in 1901, resulting 
in finding traces of oil, but it was not until 1910 that a Ini produc- 
tion was developed; in the next few months more than 2,000,000 
barrels of oil were produced. Production declined later, and now it 
is confined to some old wells, which are pumped. The total produc- 
tion to the end of 1930 was 34,317,000 barrels from an area of 150 
acres, mostly from a depth of 2,200 to 2,300 feet.2* The salt lies at a 
depth of 925 feet, with a 500-foot cover of “‘cap rock’’ limestone. 
The deeper borings penetrate the Jackson (Eocene), with the Oligocene 
pinched out by the salt on the west and southwest sides of the dome. 
The oil ranges in gravity from 19° to 37° Baumé, the latter coming 
from a sand at 3,385 feet. The producing sands are regarded as 
Miocene and possibly Oligocene. (Thompson and Eichelberger.) 
From Vinton the railroad follows the crest of a long low ridge south- 
westward to Toomey, where it curves to the west to cross the Sabine 
River. For nearly 200 miles this river is the boundary line between 
Louisiana and Texas; it empties into Sabine Lake 8 miles below 
Orange. North of the railroad crossing the river is navigated only by 
small craft, but many logs are floated down it, and the water volume 
is large in times of freshet. No precise survey has yet been made of 
its tortuous course, most parts of which are bordered by swamps. 
Much of its water is pumped for the irrigation of rice fields. 
After crossing the Sabine River into Texas the railroad makes a 
great curve to the south. 
The State of Texas is the largest of the United States, measuring 
772 miles from east to west and 723 miles from north to south. It 
has an area of 265,896 square miles, or 7.2 per cent of 
Texas. the United States. It is larger than France and than 
the States of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Virginia, 
and all of New England combined. A diagonal across the State from 
Texline to Brownsville is 1,107 miles long, and the length along the 
Southern Pacific Railroad across the State is 940 miles. The Rio 
Grande is its southwestern boundary for nearly 800 miles, and there 
is 400 miles of shore line along the Gulf of Mexico. 
The population in 1930 was 5,824,715, or nearly as much as that 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined, an increase of about 
25 per cent in 10 years. In 1836 the Anglo-American population of 
% South Louisiana Oil Scouts Assoc, Bull, 1, 1930, 
