January 12, 1894.] 
The laminated ore, or, as he described it, the lacus- 
trine ore, Mr. Johnson appears to place in the Quater- 
nary, as, after describing the conditions and modes of 
formation and deposition of such ores, he says: ‘‘Such 
deposits were produced at various stages of the Quater- 
nary history of the regions under consideration, and 
some of them possibly during the Tertiary, and now 
that the strata are exposed to erosion, the hard in- 
soluble limonites resist it more successfully than the 
unconsolidated sediments in which they occur; the 
softer rocks are therefore swept away, and the iron de- 
posits remain upon elevated plateaus or buttes.” 
Mr. Johnson also appears to have recognized the ex- 
istence of the extensive deposits of conglomerate ores, 
but of these it is unnecessary to speak. They belong 
to every age, from the Eocene Tertiary to the present. 
In point of fact, many of them are still forming. 
In 1888 the Geological Survey of Texas was estab- 
lished and the east Texas division assigned to Dr. 
Penrose. This area included the whole of the ore 
regions examined by Johnson. In his views regard- 
ing the age of the ore deposits, as shown in his ‘‘Pre- 
liminary Report on the Gulf Tertiary of Texas,” Dr. 
Penrose appears to agree with Johnson as to the age of 
the nodular ores being lignitic Tertiary, but the whole 
of the laminated ores he places, and rightly so, in the 
glauconitic or Claiborne Tertiary. In a recent report 
on the iron ores of Arkansas Dr. Penrose again refers 
to the east Texas ores as follows: ‘‘In eastern Texas, 
where the geologic position of the Tertiary iron ores is 
more easily defined than in Arkansas, two principal 
divisions of the Eocene contain noticeable quantities of 
ore; the lower one is the great series of sands and clays, 
which forms the central part of the Eocene (the Tim- 
berbelt or Sabine River beds of the Texas section); the 
upper one is the Claiborne glauconite that overlies these 
beds.” In this report Dr. Penrose compares the 
Arkansas ores to the Texas nodular ores and places both 
in the lignitic (Report on Iron Ores, Geological Survey 
of Arkansas, Vol. I. of 1892, pp. 105-6). 
Numerous and careful examinations of these ore de- 
posits throughout a great portion of east Texas and par- 
ticularly in Cass, Marion, Morris, Upshur and Harrison 
Counties, the regions in which the nodular ores are 
most extensively developed, have convinced me that 
these nodular ores do not belong to the lignitic stage 
of the Eocene, but rather that they are of the same age 
as, or probably a little newer than, or derived from, the 
laminated ores, which, according to Mr. G. D. Harris’s 
determination of the fauna, are of lower Claiborne age. 
Without entering into any discussion as to the geolog- 
ical conditions of the ore regions, it may only be neces- 
sary to say that the lignitic and glauconitic divisions are 
both represented in the regions occupied by the nodular 
ores. The characteristic features of each are so distinct- 
ly marked that there is nowhere the least difficulty in 
separating or distinguishing the one from the other. 
The uppermost number of the lignitie stage is a series 
of thinly stratified or laminated white and red sands and 
sandy clays, the laminee rarely exceeding half an inch 
in thickness and having, wherever exposed, a thin cov- 
ering, or uppermost lamina, of silicious iron or ferru- 
ginous sandstone from a half to one inch in thickness. 
These sands have not always this ribbon-like banding 
but occasionally, through an intermixture of the colors, 
present a mottled appearance. This condition is usual- 
ly confined to the vicinity of streams. 
The lowermost deposits of the Marine stage of the 
Tertiary or glauconitic deposits are usually coarse 
greenish or brownish-yellow colored indurated sands or 
sandstones. Occasionally these deposits are dark brown 
SCIENCE. 
23 
and usually without fossils, although not unfossiliferous 
throughout, but wherever found the fossils exist only 
as casts and are chiefly Cardita planicosta and tuzretella. 
These deposits are, as a general thing, ferruginous and 
carry laminated iron ore in thin seams, not only inter- 
stratified with the beds of sand and sandstone, but often 
filling joints and fractures running in different directions 
through the beds, No ore of any economic value, how- 
ever, is found associated with them. The base of these 
glauconitic sands and sandstones rests directly upon 
the uppermost white and red sands and clays of the lig- 
nitic and marks the limit below which no ore of any 
quantity or value has yet been found in any portion of 
east Texas. 
The general assumption of the nodular ores belonging 
to the lignitic by both Johnson and Penrose appears to 
have arisen from the idea held by both that the regions 
in which these ores occur in greatest abundance are alto- 
gether occupied by the clays and sands of that series. 
While it is true that the deposits of the lignitic stage 
are extensively developed in Cass, Marion and Upshur, 
and in a more limited way in Morris and Harrison 
Counties, the marine stage is also represented, and 
widely spread, fragmentary deposits of altered greensand 
and glauconitic sandstones occur within the limits of 
these counties. These fragmentary deposits often 
cover several miles of territory, and their presence is 
always marked by the occurrence of nodular ore and a 
greater or less extent of laminated ore. ‘This is usually 
in the form of very thin seams interstratified with the 
sands or occurs in a fragmentary condition scattered on 
the surface and mixed with the geodes of nodular ore. 
In Cass County the brownish-yellow altered greensands 
occur in association with both nodular and laminated ore at 
the Berry Crawford mine about a mile north of Atlanta. 
Here the section shows the nodular overlying the lam- 
inated ore and the underlying altered greensand resting 
directly upon the uppermost deposits of the lignitic 
series. This ridge extends for several miles to the 
north and west, and the nodular ore is found buried in 
the grayish and brownish-yellow sand forming the sum- 
mit and sides of the ridge and overlying the laminated 
ore and altered sands and sandstones. The same thing 
occurs in the neighborhood of Linden, where the nodu- 
lar ore occupies its usual position among the yellow 
sands overlying the beds of laminated ore. At Cusseta, 
in the so-called Cusseta Mountain, we have the same 
laminated and nodular ores associated with altered 
greensand. 
Throughout the northwestern portion of Cass and 
eastern portion of Morris Counties extensive deposits 
of laminated ore occur overlying pyritiferous green- 
sand. A small quantity of nodular ore is found along 
the margin of this plateau and occasionally among the 
brown and yellow sands overlying the region. 
South of Avinger Station in the same county, and 
extending across into Marion County, heavy deposits of 
yellow and brownish-yellow sands containing great 
quantities of nodular ore occur, and the whole of this 
field rests upon the thinly stratified deposits of the 
uppermost lignitic, whose bright red and white striped 
beds show beneath the ore deposits near Mr. Lockett’s 
mill on the one side, and the cuttings along the Texas 
and Pacific Kailway on the other, and throughout this 
area wherever stream channels have been cut deep 
enough. 
Throughout Marion County the same sequence of beds 
follows. Two miles north of Jefferson the banded lig- 
nitic is found occupying a position beneath the lami- 
nated and nodular ores. In Harrison County it is the 
same thing. In this county the marine or glauconitic 
