508 GEOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



in the town of Montague is built of this stone, from a quarry a few miles 

 west of the town. There are also some houses in the town of Bowie that are 

 built of this stone, but from a different locality. 



The sandstones of the Trinity Sands are never, so far as I know, sufficiently 

 compact to make good building material. The sands are generally in the 

 form of "packsand." While they are considerably indurated in places, they 

 are never regularly bedded in hardness, and disintegrate rapidly on exposure 

 to the weather. 



Clay for making a good article of brick can be had in many places, and 

 such material has been used in the towns for building purposes. 



Lime for making mortar can be made from the Cretaceous limestone along 

 the eastern border of the county, and sand is abundant everywhere. There 

 are no limestones for making lime in the western part of the county in the 

 Carboniferous strata. 



COAL. 



STEPHENS' COAL MJNE. 



The only place in this county where any attempt has been made to develop 

 the coal is the Stephens mine, four miles southwest of the town of Bowie, on 

 the Josepha Diaz survey and vicinity. A tunnel four hundred feet long was 

 driven into the side of a hill on the coal seam. Four shafts have been put 

 down to the coal to the north of the tunnel, the farthest about one and a half 

 miles from the tunnel. The dip of the coal seam is to the northwest. The 

 seam of coal was reached in the last shaft at a depth of one hundred and fifty 

 feet. Water was encountered in all the shafts above the coal, but none was 

 found in the tunnel. It is found in the sandstone overlying the clay above 

 the coal. No difference was observed in the thickness of the coal seam in any 

 of the shafts, but the quality of the coal was much better in the last shaft, 

 which has recently been put down, than in the others, and it is the farthest 

 north. 



The following is a section made at the mouth of the tunnel. Beginning at 

 the top: 



1. Sandstone 6 feet. 



2. Clay 20 feet. 



3. Sandstone 15 feet. 



4. Slate 3 feet. 



5. Coal 2 feet. 



6. Slate 6 inches. 



7. Coal 1 foot 4 inches. 



8. Fire clay 10 inches. 



Total 48 feet 2 inches. 



