194 THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS. 



mile north of Chandler Station. At this latter place the sandstone is a yellow, 

 soft, easily cut stone, lying in strata from eight inches to two feet in thick- 

 ness, the whole section presenting a face of about ten feet. 



CLAYS. 



Extensive deposits of clays of widely different characters occur through- 

 out the western and central portion of Henderson County. Some of these 

 deposits are at present being utilized for the manufacture of ordinary build- 

 ing bricks, ornamental and paving bricks, while the finer qualities of the 

 clay deposits in the neighborhood of Athens are being utilized for the manu- 

 facture of fire bricks, earthenware, and drain and sewer pipes. 



The most extensively developed deposits of clay within Henderson County 

 are found in the immediate vicinity of the town of Athens. In this region 

 alone five deposits of clay of varying characteristics occur, all of which have 

 been worked at one time or another in a more or less desultory manner. 



Bed No. 1, occurs on the T. Murchison farm, on the west side of the James 

 B. Attwood headright, about one and a half miles north and a little east of 

 the town. This clay bank lies on the north side of a small stream, and has 

 a thickness of two feet where open, but apparently thickens towards the 

 southeast. 



This clay is thinly laminated and of a very pale lead color, drying almost 

 to a white, and contains small crystals of what the potters call "tiff," or gyp- 

 sum, in its lower division. A section of the bank at Mr. M. K. Miller's pit 

 gives the following: 



1. Ferruginous gravel and yellow sand . . . 2 to 10 feet. 



2. Pale lead colored laminated clay 2 feet. 



3. Lignitic sand or black sandy clay 



From the dip of the beds in the region this clay appears to be the highest 

 in the list of clay deposits in this neighborhood. 



. Half a mile further west, and on the same headright, Bed No. 2 occurs. 

 This deposit dips slightly towards the east, and has the same light blue or 

 pale lead color and is six feet thick. It was worked some years ago for the 

 manufacture of earthenware, but with the exception of a few trial loads ob- 

 tained by M. K. Miller, it is not now in use. A section of the pit gives the 

 following: 



1. Ferruginous sand and gravel 5 feet. 



2. Pale lead colored clay 6 feet. 



3. Lignitic matter . . 



From its elevation and its relation to the underlying black lignitic clay or 

 sand, this deposit appears to be a western extension and outcropping of the 

 deposit found in the Miller pit. 



