REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST. lxiii 



Permian. The Archer County deposits belong to the lower or Wichita 

 beds, the California Creek bed to the Clear Fork beds, and the Kiowa 

 Peak stratum or strata to the Double Mountain beds. The general 

 manner of occurrence is the same in all. The ores are found in a bed 

 of blue clay from three to four feet thick. It is sometimes found in a 

 pseudomorphic form after wood, in which case the oxide of copper has 

 replaced the material of the woody fibre in the same manner as is done 

 by silica in ordinary petrified wood. In other places it occurs in rounded 

 nodules of different sizes, "like potatoes in a bed," as it is graphically 

 described. In addition to this the stratum of clay is impregnated with 

 copper to the extent of forming a low grade ore in places. Analyses 

 from various localities of average specimens of these copper clays yield 

 from 1.6 to 4.5 per cent of copper. In any successful attempt to utilize 

 these ores the work must be undertaken with a view of recovering the 

 copper from the copper clays by lixiviation as the principal object. The 

 extent of the deposits and amount of copper contained in them in places 

 seem to warrant this character of development, and the probability of 

 finding many rich pockets, such as have been found in nearly all the 

 workings so far attempted is additional inducement for the erection of 

 such works. Some of these pockets have yielded as much as six thou- 

 sand pounds of ore assaying sixty per cent copper. 



The general lines of the outcrop of copper clays are as follows: The 

 lower bed appears at Archer, and from there northeast to the mouth of 

 Cache Creek, the original place of discovery. The next bed is found 

 in a line running from Paint Creek, in Haskell County, northeast through 

 the northwestern part of Throckmorton County, and crossing Baylor 

 County west of Seymour, and Wilbarger County east of Vernon into 

 Indian Territory. 



The upper bed appears at Kiowa and Buzzard Peaks, and passing 

 through the northwestern part of Hardeman is finally found on Pease 

 River west of Margaret. 



COPPER ORES OF THE CENTRAL MINERAL REGION. 



In this region copper ores are known principally from the surface in- 

 dications of carbonates and sulphides, which are found in outcrops and 

 scattered through the rocks in various localities. The principal out- 

 crops are confined to the Babyhead District, extending westward from 

 the Little Llano to the head of Pecan Creek. A few others are found 



