506 GEOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



MONTAGUE COUNTY. 

 TOPOGRAPHY AND DRAINAGE. 



This county is comparatively level, yet there are some rough lands. Along 

 the western line of the county there are isolated hills or buttes, left there by 

 the erosion that left bare the Carboniferous and Permian formations to the 

 westward. Queen's Peak and Brushy Knob are noted examples. The drain- 

 age is into the West Fork of the Trinity River on the south, and into Red 

 River on the west and north Denton Creek runs through the center of the 

 county from west to east and finally empties into the Elm Fork of the Trin- 

 ity River. 



The high Cretaceous escarpment, facing to the westward, extends along the 

 entire east line of the county. Along Red River the hills are generally pre- 

 cipitous, having cut broad, deep channels having been cut through the Cre- 

 taceous and Carboniferous strata. 



GEOLOGY. 



The western part only of Montague County belongs to the Carboniferous 

 formation. It is the Cisco division of the Coal Measures, and is overlaid on 

 the west by the Wichita Beds of the Permian, and by the Trinity Sands of 

 the Cretaceous on the east. 



A large part of the county is covered, to a small depth, by the disintegrated 

 material of the Trinity Sands, so that this county may justly be called a sandy 

 county. Very few fossils have been found in the Carboniferous Measures in 

 the county, and the determination of the strata has been made principally on 

 lithological and stratigraphic grounds. A small' collection of the fossil flora 

 was made at the Stephens coal mine, a few miles west of Bowie, in the south- 

 western part of the county, but have not yet been determined. 



The Carboniferous strata have been exposed along the valley of Red River 

 by the deep erosion of its channel, to near the northeastern corner of the 

 county. 



SOIL. 



The soil of Montague County is derived principally from the underlying 

 strata. Along the Red River the soil is made from the material through 

 which that stream passes in the country above. There are no better lands 

 than these valleys in the State, as is shown by the abundant crops of grain 

 and cotton that are raised on them every year. 



The greater part of the county, however, derives its soil from the disinte- 

 gration of the Trinity Sands of the Cretaceous, and that of the sandstones and 

 clay beds of the Cisco division of the Coal Measures. 



