516 GEOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



WISE COUNTY. 

 TOPOGRAPHY AND DRAINAGE. 



Only the western part of the county is included in this description, that 

 being the only part belonging to the Carboniferous formation. 



This part of the county is somewhat broken, especially along the creeks 

 ,and rivers. A line of high hills extends along the entire Trinity River on 

 both sides and is cut through by the lateral streams, often making isolated 

 buttes of considerable size and height. The plateaus on the tops of the hills 

 and back from the rivers are level and many fine farms are on these plateaus. 

 The valleys along the river and creeks are broad and generally above over- 

 flow. 



The West Fork of the Trinity River runs through the county from north- 

 east to southwest in a very tortuous channel. Several lateral steams of con- 

 siderable size run into the river from both sides, notably that of Sandy Fork 

 on the north, which has its source in Montague County and runs almost south 

 to its confluence with the West Fork, a few miles east of Bridgeport. The 

 drainage of this part of the county is all into the West Fork of the Trinity 

 River. 



GEOLOGY. 



Only the western part of this county is in the Carboniferous formation. 

 The eastern half belongs to the Cretaceous. Leaving Decatur going west one 

 descends at once the steep hills of the Cretaceous limestones and for a few 

 miles travels over the beds of the Trinity Sands. The first section that could 

 be referred to the Carboniferous was at Dry Creek, eight miles west of the 

 town of Decatur. 



Coal Seam No. 1 passes below the Cretaceous in this county. The geology 

 is about the same as that in the vicinity of Millsap, yet some of the beds of 

 clay have become much thinner. The limestones just west of Bridgeport are 

 the same that are found west of the Coal Seam No. 1 at Strawn. 



SOIL. 



The soil of this county is derived principally from the underlying strata. 

 The valleys along the rivers are generally broad and may be classed as black 

 sandy, in places having only a small percentage of sand. These soils are very 

 fertile and are fine cotton and corn lands. Some of the lands in the lime- 

 stone belt are black clayey soil and make good crops of grain and cotton. 

 The largest percentage of soil in the western part of this county are the sandy 

 lands with clayey subsoils, which have been derived from the strata immedi- 

 ately below them. Some of the soils of this kind are very light, deep sandy, 



