118 THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS. 



These elevations, secured from railroad profiles and barometric readings, 

 give the northern side an average height of about two hundred feet above the 

 bed of the Little Cypress Creek. The elevations shown by the levels of the 

 Marshall and Northwestern Railway, and barometric readings through the 

 region north of the Cypress, show the country to the south of the creek to 

 have an average elevation of from eighty to one hundred feet above the 

 northern part of the county. 



These figures also tend to show the existence of a flat-topped ridge extend- 

 ing from the western line of the county eastward to some miles east of the town 

 of Marshall, and having an average elevation of about eighty feet above the 

 surrounding lower lands along the southern side, and gradually rising towards 

 the northern side, where the average elevation appears to be about two hun- 

 dred feet above Cypress Creek and in places from eighty to one hundred above 

 the highest points of the northern part of the county. 



This ridge at its widest part does not exceed eight miles, and narrows 

 towards the western part of the county, where the width does not exceed 

 four and a half or five miles. On the east, the ridge breaks into a succession 

 of lower ridges, gradually losing its distinctive elevation until it merges into 

 the general level of the lower lands. On the northern and southern sides the 

 face of the ridge slopes gradually from the lower to the higher levels, except 

 where the larger creeks flowing from the higher grounds, both towards the 

 north and the south sides, have cut wide steep-sided channels. In some 

 places there is an appearance of bench-like formation, but this does not ap- 

 pear extensively or continuously for any distance, and only where there is a 

 difference in the material composing the beds or owing to the presence of 

 beds of iron ore. 



On account of the erosion due to the presence of numerous small streams 

 and some large creeks, this southern ridge presents the appearance of a series 

 of flat-topped, rounded and oval-shaped hills, having, with some few ex- 

 ceptions, the same general elevation. The higher hills, such as Hynson's 

 Mountain, Barnes' Hill, Twyman's Hill, on the south side of the Clery Gril- 

 let, and the ridge stretching northwesterly through the John Deckert and 

 Seth Sheldon headrights, owe their higher altitudes to a covering of sand- 

 stones and iron ores. On the same general principles, it may be said the 

 rounded hills rising out of the lower plain to the south and east of the county 

 owe their existence to their protective covering of sandstone and ore. 



What might be considered the crest line of the region, or the divide be- 

 tween the drainage area of the Sabine River and the Little Cypress Creek, is 

 extremely irregular, and in two places is almost cut through by the waters of 

 the creeks. On the 0. H. P. Bodine survey the Moccasin Creok flowing north 

 and the Dufford's Creek flowing south, interlock, Dufford's Creek taking its 



