70 - THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS. 



the case, as in some instances where beds of ore exist these beds have pro- 

 tected the underlying unstratified material from the rapid erosion to which the 

 overlying sands have been subjected, and in this way have formed benches. 

 These are, as a rule, nearer the top of the hill, and form a second series. 



4. The rainfall of the district is peculiarly adapted to rapid erosion. Dur- 

 ing the summer months the rainfall is light. The summer rains are generally 

 thunder showers, filling the stream beds with torrents while they last. Pre- 

 viously to the advent of the storm the surface sand is light and dry, filling 

 the air with a fine dust. The torrent readily washes this sand down from 

 the hillsides and carries it off to settle in the lower reaches of the stream 

 channel, or, as in the winter and spring, to be deposited over the great extent 

 of territory at that time under water. An illustration of the rapidity of ero- 

 sion in this region may be obtained on the east side of the A. D. Duncan 

 head right, near Mr. J. M. Lockett's house. The section is as follows: 



White sandy soil 1 foot. 



Dark bluish sand 4 feet. 



Yellowish-brown sand 12 feet. 



Concretionary bed of fine quartzite 4 inches. 



Black clay 6 feet. 



2H feet. 



The stream has worn away the upper seventeen feet for over two hundred 

 yards in advance of the quartzite, and within the last ten years has cut a 

 channel one hundred feet long, forty feet wide, and seventeen feet deep; or 

 two thousand five hundred cubic yards of sand have been removed by a 

 stream which is without water at some seasons of the year. 



During the winter and spring months the rainfall is comparatively heavy, 

 and is also much steadier than during the summer. 



No statistics of temperature or rainfall are kept within the county, and no 

 reliable information can be given upon the subject. 



STRATIGRAPHY. 



Sections taken at numerous places throughout the county show a compara- 

 tively uniform sequence of the different deposits occupying the region. These 

 may be divided into two divisions. 



1st. An upper unstratified deposit of sand containing in some places beds 

 or deposits of nodular concretionary iron ore, and occasionally thin beds of 

 laminated iron ore. 



These sands are mostly of a light gray color, but change to a yellow, brown, 

 and red. In thickness they vary considerably, ranging from four to eighty 

 or one hundred feet. In texture they vary from a light, soft dust to a hard, 



