40 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
but on all the higher lands the culled trees that the lumb- 
ermen have left give a clew as to the original flora. Much 
of this line, however, runs through swampy country, and 
there the lumbermen have made but slight inroads. 
Except for a strip of two or three miles in width along 
the Neches river, and for occasional scattered ‘"bay-galls” 
or inland swamps, that part of Hardin county lying north 
of Silsbee is covered by an almost pure stand of Longleaf 
pine. In the western part of the county this gradually 
shades off into Loblolly and hardwood forests. The region 
immediately north of Silsbee is so flat as to give the 
impression of a perfectly level plain. So flat is it that a 
rise of five feet in a little brook so narrow that one can 
step across it, will cause it to overflow for many rods on 
either side. In the northern part of Hardin county the 
land begins to be slightly rolling, and by the time we get 
as far north as the middle of Jasper county, we find some 
inequalities that may fairly be dignified by the name of 
hills. 
The topography of the northern half of Jasper county 
will illustrate how new the region is geologically. In a 
gently rolling plain the streams have cut deep, narrow guL 
leys, with almost vertical banks, ten, twenty or thirty feet 
in depth. Over an area extending northward from the 
town of Jasper as far as the limit of our survey, were 
found many fragments of petrified wood. It is usually to 
be seen in small pieces lying on the surface of the ground, 
but some logs of five feet in length were found in stream 
beds. Several species were noticed, but have not been 
identified. 
The topography of Orange county corresponds in the 
main with that of the southern part of Hardin county, 
except that the river swamps occupy relatively a greater 
area. With the same exception the topography of Newton 
county corresponds with that of J asper county. Except near 
the rivers, Sabine and San Augustine counties are very hilly. 
Here the yellow, sandy clay of the more southern counties 
gives place to the so-called “red soil.” Scattered every- 
