100 GULF TERTIARY OF TEXAS. 



The Elkhart "Wells are one mile southeast of the town of Elkhart, in An- 

 derson County. They vary from thirty to sixty feet in depth, and have been 

 sunk for the sake of the mineral waters they contain. A hotel is being built 

 here and a health resort started. Some of the waters are comparatively free 

 from mineral matter, while others are strongly impregnated with iron, alum 

 and sulphur. Some of the old wells here are said to have smelled so strongly 

 of sulphur as to have been obnoxious, and were filled up. The surrounding 

 country is flat, low, and underlaid by sand and clay. These are brown from 

 the presence of vegetable matter, and contain iron pyrites, lime, gypsum, and 

 sulphur. It is doubtless from the mutual decomposition of these materials 

 that the mineral matter in the water owes its origin. Some of the waters 

 have a strong sulphur taste, and others have the pungent effects of alum and 

 iron salts. 



In the northeast part of the Musquez survey, in Mud Creek bottom, Cher- 

 okee County, are a great number of ferruginous and sulphur springs. The 

 sulphur gives a strong taste to the water, and is deposited as a white sedi- 

 ment. The iron springs deposit a heavy sediment of hydrous oxide, and are 

 closely associated with the sulphur springs. Twelve springs like these were 

 seen in an area of about one square mile. In one of them a section of a large 

 hollow gum tree has been sunk, making a beautiful clear basin within the 

 sides of the trunk. Tradition says that General Rusk, almost fifty years ago, 

 placed this tree here, and used to come every year from his home in Nacog- 

 doches County to drink the water. Many other such springs are found in 

 Eastern Texas, and many are the stories of wonderful cures that have been 

 worked by them, but they have not yet been examined by the writer. 



OILS. 



The subject of oils in Nacogdoches, Angelina, and other counties has not 

 been studied, and is left for future discussion. The oils and asphalt-bearing 

 sands of Anderson County are briefly described below. 



Ten miles east of Palestine is seen a series of black and chocolate colored 

 sands lying horizontally and containing specks of mica. They are impreg- 

 nated with bituminous matter, sometimes in the form of stiff sticky asphalt, 

 and at others as mineral oil. In this neighborhood six wells were bored for 

 oil by a Palestine syndicate in 1887, but little or no oil was found. The fol- 

 lowing two sections of borings, from data collected by Mr. J. L. Mayo, con- 

 tractor, show the associations of the oil-bearing strata: 



