INTRODUCTION. 



The Llano Estacado, or Stockaded Plain, as Prof. J. D. Dana proposes 

 to anglicize it, has long been a locality of note. 



Its supposed desert conditions have been stated on many maps, and 

 few expeditions have ventured across it, consequently little was known 

 of its real character. With the gradual settling up of those portions of 

 the State to the east came the steady westward extension of the frontier 

 line of pioneers, who. coming to the plains, found them well adapted to 

 grazing, and although the surface water was comparatively scarce, ob- 

 tained abundant supplies at moderate depths. Thus, while the region is 

 still sparsely settled, it is fully demonstrated that this so called desert is 

 not only well adapted for cattle raising, but that its agricultural possi- 

 bilities are of high order as well. 



The geology of the Llano Estacado has been written of by the geol- 

 ogists who accompanied the different government expeditions which 

 touched it at various points. Among the earliest of these was Dr. Geo. 

 G. Shumard, who was geologist of the " Red River Expedition " under 

 Captain R. B. Marcy. 



He describes the borders of the Llano Estacado as presenting " a long 

 line of bluffs six hundred feet high, and composed of horizontal layers of 

 drift and sandstone, interstratified with white limestone. From the base 

 of the bluffs to the river the countrj^ presented a gradual slope of four 

 hundred feet." 



The section which he gives in Plate 10 represents the geological forma- 

 tion from the river to the top of the bluff. He says: " The inferior 

 strata, or those between the base of the bluff and the river, having been 

 ascertained from numerous observations to consist of gypsum and red 

 clay." His section shows 425 feet of this material, overlaid by 575 feet 

 of " gray and yellow sandstone, interstratified with thin seams of non- 

 fossiliferous limestone, and this in turn by 100 feet of " drift with small 

 " boulders." He says of this: " From the drift I obtained specimens of 



o^ chalcedony, jasper, granite, and obsidian." * 



>. . 



CZ) * Marcy's Exploration of the Eed I^iver, Washington, 1854, pp. 168, 169, 





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