248 THE IRON ORE DISTRICT OF EAST TEXAS. 



bed of conglomerate iron ore belonging above and in contact with the iron 

 sandstone was gone, by disintegration and transportation. Underlying the 

 compact iron sandstone is a bed (of undetermined thickness) of modified fer- 

 ruginated sand, with a tendency to concentric structure similar to geodes, and 

 having their centres filled with loose sand. 



In the road from Timpson to San Augustine, about four miles from Timp- 

 son, was seen a thin stratum of clay ironstone, part of which had jointed 

 square fracture and yellow ochre nuclei. This corresponds with the septum 

 iron ore already described from' Panola County. 



Near a small bridge over Tadlock Branch, an eighth of a mile south of 

 Timpson, were seen a number of tumbled bowlders of iron conglomerate rest- 

 ing on a few feet of clay, which was underlaid by about one foot of lignitic 

 clay shale to the water line. Some of these iron conglomerate bowlders would 

 probably weigh as much as two thousand pounds. 



On another trip southward, about eight miles from Timpson, on the A. C. 

 Thornbery headright, was seen a ridge locally known as Wolf's Mountain, 

 the top of which is covered by about two feet of soil sand. Underlying this 

 is two feet of compact iron sandstone resting upon four feet of ferruginated 

 sand, the bottom of which is cross-bedded and resting on a seam of harder 

 ferruginous sand. This in turn is underlaid by about four feet of softer 

 ferruginous sand. See section, Fig. 19, p. 253. 



On one of the adjoining hills was seen quite an assemblage of iron sand- 

 stone nodules and "potleg" siliceous iron ore. 



On other hillsides in the neighborhood of Mr. C. S. Baine's residence, in 

 the J. A. Rodrigues headright, were seen iron geodes of considerable size, many 

 of them two and one-half feet by eighteen inches, with yellow ochre centres. 

 Some exhibited evidence of slight burning by local forest fires. In these 

 localities occur a large quantity of iron pebbles and iron gravel, a portion of 

 which was magnetic and separated by the magnet. Similar pebbles and 

 gravel were observed at Patroon Postoffice in the southeastern part of the 

 county. 



Crossing Iron Mountain, on the road from Patroon to San Augustine, the 

 conglomerate iron ore seems to have been disintegrated and removed. The 

 iron sandstone, much broken, remains. Some of it has a little laminated 

 iron ore adhering to it, and some of a lower horizon shows a tendency to 

 geodiform structure. 



On the road from San Augustine to Center the iron pebbles were seen in 

 abundance, associated with a very deep red clay soil. About three and one- 

 half miles north of San Augustine a small quantity of iron conglomerate 

 was seen. 



The best iron ore seen in Shelby County was in the extreme northwestern 



