226 THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS. 



DRAINAGE. 



The county is drained by the Sabine River, which runs through the middle 

 portion, from the northwest corner to the southeast corner. Its tributaries 

 on the west are Williams Creek, Martin's Creek, with its forks, Corbet Creek, 

 Williamson Creek, Twoomy Creek, Dillard's Creek; Iron Bayou, Hog Creek, 

 with its principal fork, Roberts Creek; Six Mile Creek, or Cypress Bayou, 

 with its north fork, Little Six Mile £reek, and its south fork, Big Six Mile 

 Creek; Murvall's Bayou, with its principal forks, Nail Creek, Henderson 

 Creek, Brushy Creek, Indian Creek, Taylor Creek; and McFad den's Creek. 

 The tributaries of the Sabine on the east are Eight Mile or Cypress Creek, 

 Caddo Creek, No Bottom or Jackson's Creek, Little Bottom Creek, Mill 

 Creek, and Socagee Bayou. Near the bed of the Sabine River are several 

 fresh water lakes, known as Hendrick's, Hill's, and Clear lakes. They seem 

 to be fed by small springs, but are subject to overflow from the river. 

 Numerous visitors resort to them during the fishing season. 



SURFACE. 



The general surface of this county is hilly and undulating. The highest 

 plains, or remnants of the original Tertiary deposition, are in the northwest 

 and southwest portions, where the buttes and ridges, having a trend from a 

 little north of east to a little south of west, have been formed by erosion from 

 the original Tertiary plains. The estimated height of these is from six hun- 

 dred to seven hundred feet above the present sea level. Covered as they are 

 with forest trees, they appear like mountain ranges, and are locally spoken of 

 as the mountainous portion of the county. 



SOILS. 



The top soil of the buttes and ridges is very sandy, probably from the 

 leaching action of rain water. The soil on the sides of these elevations par- 

 takes of the nature of the top, mingled with the under stratum of red fer- 

 ruginated and mottled red and gray clay. The soil on the lowlands and 

 alluvial bottoms is composed of a mixture of erosion and transportation of 

 the finer particles of the other two. The best soil for agricultural purposes 

 is therefore the sandy loam of the lowlands and the alluvial bottoms. Next 

 to this in value for field cultivation is the ferruginous sandy clay soil on the 

 rolling uplands, which in favorable seasons produces crops fairly well, but 

 does not stand a long period of dry weather. The first to wear out is the 

 sandy soil on the elevated buttes and ridges. The vast area of forest timber 

 has a beneficial effect in the production of rainfall, furnishing moisture by 

 evaporation to the atmosphere, from which it is condensed by cooler currents 



