216 COAL FIELDS OF THE COLORADO RIVER. 



Manganese. — Near Waldrip, about one and one-half miles northeast of 

 town, there is a small deposit of manganese outcropping. It is apparently 

 not in any considerable quantity at this point, though careful prospecting 

 may develop better deposits. 



Oil, Gas, and Salt Water. — Water barely saline has been found at vari- 

 ous places in the upper beds of the Richland Sandstone series. Also near 

 Milburn, a sipe of oil was obtained in the sandstone. The Brownwood Beds, 

 however, seem to be the most saliferous, as well as oil-bearing. At Waldrip 

 a strong flow of salt water has been found by boring through the Waldrip 

 Beds . into the upper strata of the Brownwood Beds. East of Waldrip salt 

 water is also found. At Trickham and at Brownwood salt water has also 

 been found in borings. In either of these cases the water is sufficiently 

 briny for the manufacture of salt. 



In connection with the salt water at Trickham and Brownwood both oil 

 and gas have been found, but at neither place in sufficient quantity nor under 

 sufficient head to be of economic value. The oil at both places is said to be 

 a good quality of lubricating oil. Neither the Brownwood nor Trickham 

 wells are at sufficient depth to fully test the value and quantity of the oil. 

 To make this test wells should be drilled several miles to the northwest, and 

 to a much greater depth than has been reached in either of these borings. 

 After the experience in the eastern oil wells it is plainly not safe to make 

 definite statements concerning the presence of oil, but I shall be quite sur- 

 prised if oil in paying quantities is found in any part of the Carboniferous, 

 unless up the Colorado, near the mouth of the Concho River, where there is 

 a black bituminous shale, which in a fire can be made to burn without loss 

 of bulk. The Sub-Carboniferous is a much more promising field for oil than 

 the Carboniferous. 



