DRAINAGK OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, TEXAS. 3 
for rice irrigation, about 500 miles of mains a,n(l laterals being now 
ill tise. The live-stock industiy is extensive, particularly in the 
southern ])art where many thousands of acres are given over to graz- 
ing. The turpentine industry along Pine Island Bayou is a source of 
considerable activity and profit. The country between Beaumont and 
Port Arthur is studded with huge oil tanks and oil pumping stations. 
TOPOGRAPHY. 
The sm-face of Jefferson Comity is typical of the Coastal Plain, 
being generally flat and level with few physical features especially 
marked. The land was built from deposits brought from higher 
elevations by the streams, and later exposed when the waters of the 
Gulf receded. Figure 2 (in pocket at end of bulletin) shows the 
prmcipal water courses, the watershed lines, and the areas drained by 
the streams. 
The highest elevation in the county is 46 feet above sea level, in 
the northwest part near Nome. From the northern part of the 
comity the ground slopes gradually southward to a great level tract 
of salt marsh scarcely 1 foot above sea level bordering the Gulf, 
Sabine Lake, and the lower reaches of the Neches River. To the 
eye the whole county seems perfectly level, but instrumental surveys 
show that the surface, excepting the low flat marshes, is undulating 
and has a considerable slope. This fact is in a measure shown by the 
locations of the main irrigation canals, which usually follow the 
higher contours. The only marked slopes in the county, besides 
the bluff bordering the Neches River marsh and the sloping banks 
of Pme Island Bayou, are Spindle top oil field south of Beaumont 
and Big Hill 7 miles south of Hamshire. Spindletop is 10 to 12 feet 
higher than the ground one-half mile west of the center of the oil 
field, and Big Hill has an elevation of about 20 feet above the sur- 
rounding country. There are a few places along Taylors Bayou near 
La Belle where the banks are high. 
The entne northwestern portion of the county is peculiarly devoid 
of well-defined streams or drainage channels. Water stands on the 
ground for weeks at a time after every rain, and sometimes the land 
remains under water throughout an entire season. Under present 
conditions evaporation is a greater agent of natural drainage in this 
section than percolation or flow to any natural outlet. The west- 
central part of the county is also lacking in large natural channels 
which would aid drainage, and there are only a very few small 
streams like Spindletop Gully and the upper end of Big Hill Bayou 
which carry the overflow waters down to the salt marsh adjacent to 
the coast. Several large bodies of level inland or fresh-water marshes 
occur in various parts of the county where water stands the greater 
part of the year. 
