76 THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS. 



the Jesse B. Bowman and J. C. Durham headrights the conglomerate bowl- 

 ders average eighteen inches. 



Near Springdale, on the James Horton, Rachel P. Moore, N. Rhea, Amanda 

 Haygood, Memphis and El Paso Railway, W. de Woody, Wm. Kolb, and J. 

 T. Wood surveys the ore averages four feet in thickness. The ore deposits 

 on the Memphis and El Paso Railway and James Horton tracts exceed this in 

 places. 



On the southeast corner of the Samuel Harrison headright, on the farm of 

 Matthew Powell, a deposit of conglomerate ore shows blocks measuring over 

 two feet in thickness. These blocks are tilted and lie upon the side of a hill. 

 The deposit here is probably over four feet in thickness. 



Character of Ores. — The iron ores found in Cass County may be divided 

 into the three grades or classes adopted by Dr. Penrose. 1st, laminated ore; 

 2d, geode or nodular concretionary ore; and 3d, conglomerate ore. 



The distribution of these ores is such that, with the exception of the con- 

 glomerate ore deposits, no separate localities can be stated to contain exclu- 

 sively any special class. Laminated, geode, and even conglomerate are gen- 

 erally found together and commingled to such an extent that it would be im- 

 possible to separate them. In the description of the separate ores, under each 

 heading a few of the places where the particular class of ore under consider- 

 ation forms the most prominent ore is given. These are not the only places 

 where such ore is to be found, but rather the places in which it forms the 

 largest proportion of the ore found in the locality. 



I. LAMINATED ORE. 



The heavy deposits of laminated iron ore found in the counties to the south 

 of Cass appear to thin out toward the north, and in Cass County this class of 

 ore is found usually in a fragmentary condition scattered amongst the other 

 ores and ferruginous sandstones of the district. It is also found in thin 

 seams or strata at various depths. Where it is bedded it is generally, if not 

 always, overlaid by a thin stratum of soft sandstone, and by heavy deposits 

 of unstratified yellow or orange-colored sand. In many places it is also un- 

 derlaid by sands of a similar color and texture, but the greater extent of the 

 beds of laminated ore immediately overlies the heavy deposits of stratified 

 white and red sand, or their equivalent in the form of a mottled red and white 

 unstratified clayey sand having a texture of the same quality as the strati- 

 fied beds. The overlying unstratified sands vary considerably in their thick- 

 ness, ranging from four feet to thirty feet, and the underlying ore appears to 

 have a somewhat similar variability as to thickness, it being a kind of a gen- 

 eral condition that the thicker the sand deposit the thinner the ore, and in 

 many of the very deep beds the ore deposit is wanting. 



The laminated ores of Cass occur in thin laminaB of a dark brown or chest- 



