I'lie Sfrnfujrdphji of X. W. Louhiand . — A'aiuihav. 22o 
soiitliward uiuh'r a steep mmie beyond llie Ixmiidai'v' of tlie present sur- 
vey, rapidly towards the <rull\ presentiiiif a plateau in which the rivers 
have cut wide valleys with steep walls and their tributaries, narrow 
gulleys with broken and dentatod embankments, several over 100 feet 
in height. Frequently the country roads wind along a narrow ridge, 
falling steep to either side for many miles through this section. The 
features of erosion resemble somewhat the country north of it where 
the drift sands have accumulated, forming sections almost e(|ually 
steep. They lessen in height in a southerly direction. The landscape 
these rocks offer is verv monotonous. The open woods ol the long h-af 
pine, as far as the eye can reach, and the green turf interrupted by bare 
spots of the gray sands derived from tiie underlying sandstones some- 
times cropping out in high knolls along the road, or from the sands and 
gravels of the drift which generally cov<>r I he rocks of this formation in 
a thin sheet. The waters of streams and creeks are swift, ricii in fish, 
especially trout and perch, and almt)St of crystalline clearness, uidess 
they wind along a swam|)y bottom, and springs are eviMi more nuTr.er- 
ous than in the northern ])art of the State. "••' 
Age undeteumined : Sfauta sands. f 
Extending across the central portion of Louisiana are deep 
quartz sands. The northern extent of these sands is as fol- 
lows : They reach to T. 16 N., on the Louisiana meridian ; 
the boundary from there passes two miles south of Gansville, 
thence northwest to Sparta, From Sparta it runs south to 
the northwest corner of Natchitoches ptirish, and thence the 
boundary is formed by Black Lake baj-^ou and Black lake, to 
the mouth of that lake. West of the Red river the line runs 
from Victoria by Fort Jessup and south to the mouth of Ba3'ou 
Toreau.| Pjxcept a narrow strip along the Ouachita river, 
nearly all of the region between the fluviatile deposits of the 
Red and Ouachita rivers is covered by these sands. 1 have 
not examined the southern boundary west of the Red river. 
These sands overlap both the Lower Claiborne and tiie Grand 
Gulf, extending entirely across the Jackson and Vicksburg. 
The material of these deposits is usually almost pure quartz 
*Prel. Rep.. (Jeol. Hills of La., Part ii, pp. IKJ, 04, ISO!!. 
fThese sands and gravels have been called drift by Hopkins and 
Lerch. In order not to \enture an opinion as to their age, and uol to 
attempt a correlation of all the superficial ujjland sands and graxels of 
northw'esiern Louisiana, I ha\e proposed a local name, and desire to in- 
clude under il deposits of whose hmnogeny and contemporaneity there 
can be no reasonable doulil. 
t;See Li)Cki'tt's Topograph. .Map of La., ISS".'. 1 haxcseiMi this line all 
through the teri-itory except along lllack Laki' bayou and I'.lack lake, 
and from \'icloria lo the Sabine I'iver. 
