lxii REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST. 



veins, for the most part in the older rocks. While they are not abun- 

 dant enough to sustain any industry by themselves, they may become 

 valuable in addition to the other iron ores. 



PROSPECTS OF THE IRON INDUSTRY IN TEXAS. 



Taking the iron ore deposits of the State as a whole, and considering 

 their wide distribution, their excellent quality, their relation to fuel sup- 

 ply and other necessaries for smelting and manufacturing them, no doubt 

 can remain of the magnitude which the iron industry is bound to assume 

 in this State, and that Texas is destined to become one of the great iron 

 and steel producing centers of the world. 



COPPER. 



The copper ores of Texas are of two characters. Those of the Cen- 

 tral Mineral Region and Trans-Pecos Texas occur in veins, while the 

 ores of the Permian area are found as impregnations and segregations 

 in the clays. 



THE PERMIAN COPPER ORES. 



The copper ore of this division was first described by Capt. R B. 

 Marcy in his report on the exploration of Red River in 1852, when he 

 found specimens of it in Cache Creek. 



In 1864, Colonel J. B. Barry sent a party with Indian guides to 

 Archer County and secured a considerable amount of ore, which was 

 shipped to Austin and part of it smelted and used for the manufacture 

 of percussion caps for the Confederacy, under the superintendence of 

 Dr. W. De Ryee. After the war several attempts were made to develop 

 these deposits, but lack of transportation facilities and the fact that the 

 high grade ore bodies were in pockets and irregularly distributed pre- 

 vented the success of the undertaking. Still later General McLellan 

 and a strong company made an effort to utilize the deposits of Harde- 

 man and adjoining counties, but it seems that the true nature of the 

 deposits were not fully appreciated, and the result was the same as those 

 of earlier date. 



As has been stated, these ores occur as impregnations or segregations in 

 the clays at certain definite horizons in the formation. They are not in 

 veins, therefore, but in beds, and are not to be mined by sinking shafts to 

 lower depths, but more after the manner of coal deposits. There are three 

 (and possibly a fourth) of these horizons, one in each division of the 



