164 THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS. 



the Iron Bridge Postoffice — are interesting in view of the peculiar tendency 

 of all the Texan streams tributary to the Red River division of the old Mis- 

 sissippi system of drainage, after having traveled for many miles in a gen- 

 eral southeasterly course to suddenly change to a nearly direct eastward flow. 

 This course is maintained for a few miles and then the river resumes its 

 normal southeasterly, or more generally a southern, direction towards the 

 G-ulf of Mexico. At this place the Sabine flows eastward, and apparently 

 with the strike of the several deposits with which the river is associated. 



These two bluffs are connected by a chain of lower bluffs lying about half 

 a mile south of the river's present course, and the whole presents a semi-lunar 

 appearance, having the two ends abutting on the river and the lower ground 

 filled with river silt. 



The bluffs appear on each side of the river in something like an alternate 

 series, and where a bluff occurs on one side of the river the other bank lies 

 mostly in the form of a low, flat, marshy, or silt filled bayou. 



These alternate bluffs, with their accompanying silt deposits and marshes, 

 seem to indicate the instability of the river and a series of oscillations in the 

 course of the stream channel within a comparatively recent time. The exact 

 condition or extent of these changes has not yet been studied. 



IRON ORES. 



The iron ores of Gregg County belong to the same classes of ores — the 

 laminated, nodular or concretionary, and the conglomerate ores — found scat- 

 tered throughout the other counties of Eastern Texas. 



1. LAMINATED ORE. 



Laminated ores are but sparingly represented in Gregg County. This ore 

 is a brown hematite of a chestnut color and often of a highly resinous lustre. 

 In structure it varies from a compact massive variety, showing no structure, 

 to a highly laminated form, the laminae varying from one-sixteenth inch to a 

 quarter inch thick. The laminae frequently show a black, glossy surface, 

 though the interior is always the characteristic chestnut brown color. 



The laminated ores of Gregg County are found mostly in a fragmentary 

 condition. No deposits in situ of any extent or value were seen anywhere in 

 the county. The only deposit of laminated ore occurring in Gregg is a thin 

 deposit, not exceeding six inches in thickness, found exposed on the road 

 and in the banks of a small stream known as Rocky Branch, on the east side 

 of the Alexander Furguson headright, about two miles west by south of Long- 

 view. In addition to this deposit being very thin, it is also of a very low 

 grade. 



Small scattering fragments are found in places throughout the ore areas of 



