176 THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS. 



surface, and have usually a dull, earthy, lustreless brown color. In places 

 this dull brown gives place to a beautiful glossy black color, with a brilliant 

 lustre. This black ore occurs generally in the form of thin streaks running 

 through the brown, and sometimes occurs as broad patches, in which cases 

 it always presents a mammillated surface and is rarely of any thickness. 

 When broken the ores of this part of the field present a concretionary ap- 

 pearance, and the portions between the ore septa are usually filled with a dark 

 brown ochreous matter, and although sometimes empty this condition is very 

 rare. 



This ore usually surmounts the hills forming the ridges in which it occurs, 

 and with the exception of a few spots on the tops of the highest points of the 

 ridge is wholly exposed. In some of the high hills the ore is covered by de- 

 posits of fine yellow sand from five to ten feet in thickness. The broken con- 

 dition of the ore renders it difficult to measure the thickness of the deposit 

 with accuracy, but it may be estimated about five feet. The maximum thick- 

 ness of the deposits does not exceed eight feet. 



Throughout the whole of the region immense deposits of ferruginous 

 gravels and sands occur, lying around the base and well up on the sides of 

 the ridges, and in some places reaching as high up the hill sides as the edges 

 of the ore deposits from which they were evidently derived. These sands 

 and gravels contain large quantities of ore in the form of nodules and broken 

 fragments from the size of small peas to that of a man's head. The ores in 

 these gravels are usually of a good quality, although more or less mixed with 

 sandstone. 



This forms the main body of the Morris County ores, but isolated fields 

 occur in the vicinity of the town of Daingerfield, to the west of the town on 

 the Henry Proctor headright, and another in a range of hills rising about one 

 hundred and fifty feet above the level of the lower plain or bottom lands of 

 the neighboring creeks. This ridge begins on the southwest of the J. N. 

 King headright, passes in a southeasterly direction to near the northeast 

 corner of the south J. N. King headright, then south to the northwest corner 

 of the J. W. Duncan headright, and then, swinging around in a westerly di- 

 rection to the middle of the east line of the J. V. Cherry tract, it assumes a 

 southwesterly course to near the south side of this survey, where it termi- 

 nates in a high round-topped hill. Passing around the base of this hill, the 

 ore line turns northeasterly through the H. S. Proctor headright, and thence 

 east to the J. N. King survey. A rounded isolated hill on the east side of 

 the Ewing Ellison headright is also capped with ore, but is of no great extent. 

 Ore is also reported to exist on the James Knolb headright. 



The ores found on the Cherry and King headrights are similar to those 



