Record of Geology of Texas, 1887-1890. 
221 
Schmitz, E. J. 
sliaites, clays, comparatively soft conglomerates and marls. The occurrences 
* of copper ore are scattered over a large area of Archer and i Wichita coun- 
ties, and the ore of Archer county appears (principally in the marls and 
clay-islates as pseudomorph after wood (cupritied branches of trees, to a 
thickness of several inches in diameter), and as larger or smaller nodules 
(up to four or five inches in diameter), most or all of which are of fos- 
sil iferous origin. 
“'Copper ore is found also in irregular amorphous masses, intermixing 
with and impregnating the marl or clay-slate. In a third form it occurs 
‘as numerous small pebbles in a hardened cupriferous marl-conglomerate.’ 
And (finally I found such nodules of copper ore seated in hardened clay- 
slate and even in sandstone. The copper ore consists principally of green, 
blue and dark silicates and carbonates of highly varying percentage. The 
cuprified wood runs mostly high in copper, generally between 20 and GO 
per cent., and the same is true of the* nodules. When impregnating or 
intermixed with the clay and marl, the ore mostly co.ntains less than 20 
per cent, of copper ; so does the conglomerate, etc. 
“ISTo matter in what form the ore appears, it shows always its Neptunie 
origin. The pseudomorphs of wood, as well as the nodule ores, occur in 
entirely separate and distinct pieces of irregular form, and are scattered 
irregularlj^ through the clay or marl matrix, forming nests or pockets of 
uncertain extent and size. The ore oecurreiiees in the conglomerate marl 
and the cupriferous clays all show decided pocket-form, and give indisputa- 
ble evidence of the origin of the copper ores by precipitation during the 
deposition of the copper-bearing stratum, or by replacement and meta- 
morphosis shortly after the deposition of the strata.” 
Description of (1) the Isbell Lead seven miles northwest of Archer 
(City; (2) The Ball Mine; (3) The Winn Pocket or Deposit; (4) The 
Elm iSpring District; (5) Other Localities near Isbell; (6) Copper Ore 
Deposits on Judge Kerr’s Farm, two and one-half miles east southeast 
from Archer City; (7) Spring Mountain, two miles southwest from 
Arden. 
'‘Resume. The territory examined around the so-called Isbell lead 
extends about one and one-half miles east and three miles west of Isbell, 
and about one and one-half miles north and one and one-hall miles south, 
therefore east and west four and one-half miles and north and south about 
three miles. Copper ore was observed in this district in at least ten 
different localities in the forms of pseudomorphs of wood, of nuggets or 
nodules, and as cupriferous marl or clay-slate and clay. The ore appears 
always in irregular pockets of uncertain position in clay-slate and marl 
O'f highly variable thickness; but this clay-slat*e, etc., and the whole series 
of Permian measures inclosing the said clay-slate and marl and marl 
matrix belong undoubtedly in the same geological horizon. 
“In the localities two miles south of Archer City we have the copper 
ore in the clay-slate and as cupriferous marl conglomerate, both appar- 
ently of the same geological horizon with ithe deposits around Isbell. 
“The ore in the Texas Permian has this in common with the ore of the 
Kupferschicfer in the German Permian (iMansfield district) : that they 
both occur principally in a bituminous clay-slate and marl; but while 
