THE ORES AND THEIR MODE OF OCCURRENCE. 31 



in Cherokee, are often just as thick or thicker than the top beds. Such a 

 formation as this, with its interstratification of soft and hard beds, gives a 

 very characteristic topography to the country. As in the Cherokee region, 

 the horizontal strata have been cut through by the numerous rivers and 

 creeks, leaving flat-topped hills and plateaus, with steep escarpments and an 

 alternately receding and protruding outline, resembling, on an exceedingly 

 small scale, the sides of the western canyon. 



" The beds of the creeks are generally very sandy from the detritus washed 

 down from the uplands, and frequently large beds of conglomerate, composed 

 of ferruginous pebbles in a sandy cement, have been formed along the stream. 



" In many places benches are seen along the slopes of the hills. These, un- 

 like those in the land of the brown laminated ore, probably owe their origin 

 to the alternation of hard and soft beds." 



, 3. CONG-LOMORATE ORES. 



"The variety of ore included under this head consists of a conglomerate 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 regions just described. Sometimes they 

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

 centrated by crushing and washing out the sandy matrix. They usually 

 contain more or less ferruginous sandstone in lenticular deposits, and are 

 much cross-bedded. These ores are seen throughout East Texas from the 

 Red River to the Brazos, but have as yet been put to no practical use, on ac- 

 count of the abundance of the other ores. On White Oak Creek, in Chero- 

 kee County, and at the house of William Smith, a bed of rock is seen which 

 in places is twenty feet thick, and interbedded with sandstone. It rises from 

 the bed of the creek upwards, and is* traceable at intervals for several miles 

 above and below this place. Similar beds are seen on the Neches and An- 

 gelina rivers in many places, as well as on Larrisson, Bowles, Box, Gum, 

 Killough, Mud, Sulphur, and other creeks in the same county. Such beds 

 are also found in Anderson, Smith, Rusk, and the surrounding counties. In 

 Marion and Cass counties they are also plentiful. Near Lasater, Marion 

 County, conglomerate ore is found at the foot of Leverett's Hill, and also in 

 the streams running off Berry Hill." 



