GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY. 9 



dale Mountain, and many other iron clad hills. To the east looms up a sim- 

 ilar range, constituting the iron ore plateau of Rusk and New Birmingham. 

 The timber of this region differs considerably in different parts. In the south- 

 eastern corner, between the Sabine and the Trinity rivers, is the long leaf 

 pine region. It extends from the northern edge of the coast prairies inland 

 for over a hundred miles, and finally gives way to the short leaf or yellow 

 pine, the oak, and the hickory. To the west of the Trinity it also becomes 

 more and more scattered, giving place to the loblolly pine, until it disappears 

 altogether. This area is the terminus of the long leaf pine belt, which ex- 

 tends continuously from the Carolinas through Georgia, Florida, Alabama, 

 Mississippi, and Louisiana. 



To the north and northwest of this region we come into a country covered 

 mostly by short leaf pine, post oak, blackjack, and hickory, with smaller quan- 

 tities of sweet gum. ash, white oak, black oak, pin oak, water oak, walnut, 

 willow, cottonwood, sycamore, and in still smaller quantities black gum, maple, 

 black locust, cedar, thorn, holly, black hickory, shell-bark hickory, mulberry, 

 birch, sassafras, and cypress. In the Trinity River bottom and to the west 

 of it large quantities of pecan are found, but to the east of that river it is en- 

 tirely wanting. Grape vines are of universal occurrence, and occasionally 

 rattan is found. The timber in many parts of this region is very dense, and 

 in places is on the constant increase. It was in 1840 to 1850 that the timber 

 region of Northeast Texas began to attract attention and immigration began. 

 Stephen Austin, as early as 1821, had led a party of Americans to the banks 

 of the Brazos and there, on the land originally granted by the Mexican gov- 

 ernment to his father Moses Austin for a colony, founded the first American 

 settlement of importance in this region. But this was in the coast prairie 

 country, and it was twenty years or more later that the country to the north 

 began to attract the pioneer. At that time the timber of the region was scat- 

 tered, and the only places where dense vegetation was seen were in the river 

 bottoms and along the bayous, creeks, and lowlands, where many kinds of oak, 

 walnut, gum, and, in places, cypress flourished in all the virgin luxuriance of a 

 comparatively warm, moist climate. On the uplands, and especially in the 

 great sandy plateau regions, the ground was covered by a luxuriant growth 

 of tall grass, and the timber was scattered and confined to large oaks and 

 hickories, which offered no obstruction to the free passage of wagons and stock. 

 In fact, travel through it was as easy as on the open prairie. But with the 

 appearance of the white man and the withdrawal of the Indian came a great 

 increase in the density of timber, especially oak, hickory, ash, etc., and it may 

 safely be said that in spite of the large amount of land which is now cleared 

 and under cultivation, the quantity of hardwood timber in Northeast Texas is 

 to-day greater than when the plough of the white man first broke the soil half 



