58 GULF TERTIARY OF TEXAS. 



forming a hill some fifty feet above the river is a hard white limestone, which 

 will be described more fully further on. 



Mr. E. T. Dumble, State Geologist, has noted the Fayette sand at the fol- 

 lowing localities not mentioned above: Beeville, Bee County; Goliad, Goliad 

 County; Victoria, Victoria County; Cuero, De Witt County; Hallettsville, 

 Lavaca County; Columbus, Colorado County; Wharton, Wharton County, 

 and elsewhere. 



R. H. Loughridge* has also noted the "Grand Gulf" Beds near Cuero, in 

 De Witt County; near Oakdale, Live Oak County, and in Duval County. 



Hence there is but little doubt of the continuous extension of these beds 

 from the Sabine the Rio Grande. As already stated (p. 50) it seems probable 

 that the beds above and below Roma, containing the large Ostrea georgianaf, 

 and even certain beds up as far as the mouth of the Rio Salado and Carrizo, 

 belong to the Fayette Series. 



SOILS OF THE FAYETTE BEDS. 



The country underlaid by these beds is a rolling prairie, stretching across 

 the State from the Sabine River to the Rio Grande, parallel to the coast and 

 from fifty to one hundred miles back from it. It borders the eastern edge 

 of the great timber region, which also separates it from the parallel prairies 

 of the Basal Clays and the Central Texas region. This belt is in places over 

 sixty miles wide, and is probably sometimes over one hundred. The soil is in 

 many parts of remarkable fertility, of a black clayey or sandy character, and 

 heavily charged with carbonate of lime. In its local fertility this belt is in 

 striking contrast with the corresponding region in Louisiana and Mississippi, 

 which is often a barren sandy country, of but little agricultural value. This 

 difference is due to the fact that the Fayette Beds in Texas, like the under- 

 lying Timber Belt Beds, are much richer in lime than in the other Gulf States, 

 and consequently much better suited for agricultural purposes. 



POST-TERTIARY DEPOSITS. 



The Post-Tertiary deposits of East Texas have not as yet been thoroughly 

 studied, and the following remarks are given simply as a preliminary state- 

 ment of their occurrence. For the sake of convenience they will be treated 

 under the following headings: 



1. Upland Gravel. 



2. River Silt. 



3. Coast Clays. 



*" Report on the Cotton Production of the State of Texas," Tenth Census of the United 

 States, Yol. V, p. 6? 9. 



