SMITH COUNTY. 205 



plateaus, sometimes several miles in breadth, and are capped by strata of iron 

 ore of varying thickness, to the presence of which the ridges owe their very 

 existence. 



At a former period the whole county represented an old Tertiary sea bot- 

 tom, or base level, and formed one extensive level plateau. The Neches and 

 Sabine rivers have cut through this plain to a depth of two hundred to four 

 hundred feet, the softer strata of which have been eroded and worn away, 

 leaving as elevations those portions which are capped by iron ore or sandstone, 

 thus giving rise to the present configuration of the county. This erosion has 

 been upon a very extensive scale, and is still continuing its work of denuda- 

 tion at a rapid rate. 



The iron ore ridges are covered by a dense forest growth of oak trees, 

 hickory, pine, walnut, sassafras, mulberry, cottonwood, etc., and have gen- 

 erally an altitude of from three hundred and fifty to seven hundred feet 

 above the sea level, and are from one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet 

 higher than the main drainage grooves of the Sabine and Neches. 



However, they are often represented by isolated hills one-half to one mile 

 in length by two hundred to three hundred yards in breadth, which are 

 heavily timbered and cut by innumerable tributary small streams and 

 ravines. 



IRON ORES. 



LOCALITIES AND AREAS. 



The main ore beds of this county lie at a distance of from one to six miles 

 south of the Sabine River, and can be traced in broken areas across the en- 

 tire northern portion of the county. In the southern portion are several 

 small divides, capped with irood ore, which are a continuation of the iron ore 

 beds of Cherokee County. The bluffs east of the Neches River contain a 

 very fair grade of limonite ore, though it is so broken that it is probably not 

 sufficient in quantity for economic purposes. 



There are six localities in the county where ore occurs in sufficient quanti- 

 ties to render it commercially valuable, the boundaries of which I traced 

 carefully and have noted on the accompanying map. 



The first of these is the Garden Valley bed. It begins on the F. B. Rags- 

 dale survey and runs a little west of north through the western lines of the 

 H. Cozzart, Wade, and Wm. McCary surveys, thence crosses near the south- 

 western corner of the R. G. Stewart, touches the J. Williams, thence turns east 

 through the Casey Askew, and extends through the southeastern part of the 

 San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railroad Company survey; from there it 

 turns southeastward, passes through the southwestern corner of the Thos. 



