GREGG COUNTY. 165 



the county, but are in most places in association with the ferruginous sand- 

 stones belonging to and overlying such ore deposits whenever they do occur 

 in regularly bedded form. 



2. GEODE OR NODULAR CONCRETIONARY ORE. 



This ore is also a brown hematite and occurs in a great variety of forms. 

 It generally occurs as nodules or geodes, or as honeycombed botryoidal, sta- 

 lactitic, and mammillary masses. It is rusty brown, yellow, dull red, or even 

 black in color, and has a glossy, dull, or earthy lustre. The most character- 

 istic feature of the ore is the nodular form in which it occurs. These nodules 

 or concretions have frequently a striated appearance, showing a brown and 

 yellow alternation of laminae when broken, and have been formed by the con- 

 cretions of ore forming in thin deposits or layers around a nucleus of some 

 other matter. This nucleus is frequently, from some cause or other, wanting 

 and the nodule is found hollow when broken. In others the nucleus consists 

 of a white or yellowish colored sand or a brown ochreous material. 



These concretions are found loosely scattered throughout the brown and 

 orange colored sand, sometimes in heavy deposits and lying so close together 

 as to give them the appearance of a regularly bedded ore; but in most places 

 in Gregg County this ore lies in scattered nodules or in very small deposits, 

 both areally and in thickness. 



A small deposit of this class of ore occurs among the brown gravelly sands 

 on the David Hill headright and northward along the county line for a mile 

 or two. Between Cabbiness' gin and grist mill and Omega Postoffice several 

 small deposits of the same nature occur, and there are also some small de- 

 posits found scattered throughout the rest of the ore areas of the county. An 

 ochreous form of this ore occurs on the Isaac Skillern headright, near the 

 crossing of the Longview and Gladewater and the Longview and Gilmer pub- 

 lic roads. 



3. CONGLOMERATE ORES. 



This variety of ore consists of a conglomerate of brown ferruginous 

 pebbles, with some siliceous pebbles cemented in a sandy matrix. These 

 beds are usually of local deposit, and are found along the banks and bluffs of 

 almost all the streams in the iron ore regions. 



These ores are found in Gregg County in association with both Grace and 

 Hawkins' creeks, as well as in the form of bowlders scattered over the greater 

 part of the county, but always in close association with the creeks and smaller 

 streams. A poor grade of conglomerate forms the protective covering of the 

 chain of low bluffs lying between Iron Bridge Postoffice and the Longview 

 and Kilgore public road on the south side of the river. 



Conglomerate ores are of a very low grade and can not be worked profit- 



