REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST. lix 



to three feet, although it may exceed this in places. This class of ores 

 is most extensively developed south of the Sabine Eiver. 



The ore bed is generally underlaid by a stratum of greensand mar] 

 from ten to thirty feet in thickness, and overlaid by from one to sixty 

 feet of sands and sandstones. 



Nodular, or G-eode, Ores. — These ores, which are best developed 

 north of the Sabine Eiver, usually occur as nodules or geodes, or as 

 sandy clay strata. These were described at page 76 of the First An- 

 nual Eeport, as follows : 



"It generally occurs in nodules or geodes, or as honey -combed, botryoidal, 

 stalactitic, and mammillary masses. It is rusty brown, yellow, dull red, or 

 even black color, and has a glossy, dull, or earthy lustre. The most charac- 

 teristic feature of the ore is the nodular or geode form in which it occurs. 

 Some of the beds are made up of these masses, either loose in a sandy clay 

 matrix or solidified in a bed by a ferruginous cement. The ore lies horizon- 

 tally at or near the tops of the hills, in the same manner as the brown lami- 

 nated ores to the south of the Sabine River. The beds vary in thickness 

 from less than one foot to over ten feet, the thicker ones being often inter- 

 bedded with thin seams of sand. The ore bearing beds are immediately over- 

 laid by sandy or sandy clayey strata." 



Conglomerate Ores. — These were described, at page 81 of the 

 First Annual Eeport, as quoted below : 



"The variety of ore included under this head consists of a conglomer- 

 erate of brown ferruginous pebbles one-quarter to two inches in diameter and 

 cemented in a sandy matrix. Sometimes a few siliceous pebbles are also 

 found. The beds vary from one to twenty feet thick, and are generally local 

 deposits along the banks and bluffs and sometimes in the beds of almost all 

 the creeks and streams in the iron ore region just described. Sometimes they 

 cap the lower hills. They are generally of low grade, but could be concen- 

 trated by crushing and washing out the sandy matrix. They usually contain 

 more or less ferruginous sandstone in lenticular deposits, and are much cross- 

 bedded." 



The investigations of the Survey in East Texas show an aggregate iron 

 bearing area of one thousand square miles. This is not all a solid bed of 

 commercial ore, but the area within which commercial ores are known 

 to exist. If even one-fourth be taken as productive iron land, and the 

 bed be estimated at two feet in thickness, both very safe estimates, we 

 have a total output of fifteen hundred million tons of iron ore. 



