PANOLA COUNTY. 239 



7. Interstratified sand and clay shale. The dark stratum (three inches) of shale 



looks bituminous, or at least organic . 5 feet. 



8. Cross-bedded gray sand 5 feet, 



9. Shaly clay, with nodules of clay stone, to water line. 



At a second bluff, about one and one-half miles up the river, the ledge dips 

 to the southwest, and the section appeared to be: 



1. Soil 8 feet. 



2. Hardpan clay 2 inches. 



3. Shaly clay on the incline 20 feet. 



4. Hardpan clay 1 inch. 



5. Shaly clay on the incline - 25 feet. 



Going down the ridge road on the east of the Sabine River, several miles 

 from Pulaski Ferry, the following section was noted on Big Rocky Hill and 

 vicinity : 



1. Sandy soil 2 feet. 



2. "White and colored drift pebbles . . 2 feet. 



3. Pebble conglomerate and adhering iron sandstone 2 fe#t. 



4. Red clay, changing to yellow sandy clay, or orange formation 20 feet. 



From the foregoing observations it would seem that the character of the 

 iron deposit depended on local conditions at the time of sedimentation and 

 cementation, and the following working hypothesis may be stated: 



That the buttes and ridges were once connected and are now but the rem- 

 nants of an elevated Tertiary plain. 



That this elevated plain was once lacustrine, as shown by the successive 

 depositions of beds of clay and sand, the stratified material of the lignite 

 series, and the stratified iron series. 



That the quantity of iron in solution probably varied at different times, 

 but the total was nearly the same for the northwest and southwest portions 

 of the county. 



That the buff crumbly or aluminous bog ore resulted from the iron solu- 

 tion penetrating and cementing the lacustrine deposit of clay in the southwest 

 portion of the county. 



That the overlying contact of laminated iron ore resulted from a simul- 

 taneous deposition and cementation of iron sediment and clay. 



That a subsequent drifting of fine sand was in like manner cemented by 

 sedimentation from the iron in solution, forming the iron sandstone. 



That afterward the drift sand included small rounded iron pebbles and 

 gravel, which in like manner was cemeted by deposition of the iron in solu- 

 tion, to form the iron conglomerate. 



That during this time a similar amount of iron was deposited by sedimen- 

 tation* in the northwestern portion of the county, but the drift sand was 

 largely in excess of the clay, consequently the iron sandstone was largely in- 



