GREGG COUNTY. 161 



CHAPTER IV. 



GREGG COUNTY. 



BY WM. KENNEDY. 



PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE IRON ORE DISTRICTS OF 



GREGG COUNTY. 



During the month of October a few days were spent in Gregg County with 

 the view of ascertaining and defining in a preliminary way the actual occur- 

 rence of iron ore within the boundaries of the county, and also in roughly 

 ascertaining the areal extent of the ore regions. No attempt was made to 

 make the survey as exact and final as has been done in the other ore bearing 

 counties within the limits of the ore belt, and the questions relating to the 

 stratigraphical and structural geology of the county, except in a very general 

 way, have been left to be taken up next season. 



STRATIGRAPHY. 



The few cursory notes taken exhibit a similarity of structure with the other 

 counties lying to the east and northeast. The higher grounds of the county 

 are covered with a hetrogenous mixture of orange-red, yellow, and brown 

 sands, fragments of ferruginous sandstones of irregular sizes and forms, and 

 laminated iron ore with nodules of concretionary iron ore, many of which are 

 broken into small fragments, and occasional bowlders of conglomerate ore. 

 The lower, or grounds lying intermediate between the ridges and the river 

 bottom sands, are covered by a yellowish or brownish colored sandy loam, 

 containing occasional nodules of iron ore, and the river bottom lands are 

 chiefly made up of a silt or fine gray colored sand. 



In the northern portion of the county the underlying deposits exposed in 

 many of the stream cuttings consist of thinly laminated dark blue or slate 

 colored sandy clay, apparently belonging to the same series of lignitic de- 

 posits found exposed in the bank of the Sabine River at the International 

 and Great Northern Railway crossing, and also on the C. A. Praser head right 

 a short distance east of the bridge on the Longview and Kilgore public road. 



In the region around E. M. Cabbiness' gin and grist mill the section shown 

 in a creek is as follows: 



1. Brown or orange-red sand, with broken fragments of concretionary ore 



and siliceous pebbles ... 1 to 30 feet. 



2. Dark blue or slate colored, thin]y laminated, sandy clays, exposed 2 to 4 feet. 



The same characteristic section is also seen at many other places along the 



