24 OIL FIELDS OF TEXAS-LOUISIAKA COASTAL PLAIN, [bull. 212. 
of their association with gypsum and sulphur and their somewhat 
vague analogy with the deposits of sulphur and petroleum at Sulphur 
Mine, Louisiana. The latter deposits were regarded as Cretaceous by 
Hilgard in 1871, and have since been so considered without any very 
conclusive evidence. Harris assumed the presence of an anticline of 
sufficient elevation to bring the Cretaceous several thousand feet 
above its normal position. His assumption of an anticline is correct, 
but it was formed after the Eocene had been laid down, and con- 
sequently several thousand feet of beds of that age intervene between 
the Cretaceous and the oil-producing beds. Hill places these beds in 
the Neocene, but states that they mighl as well be placed in the Pleisto- 
cene, or Recent, or anywhere else, as NTeocene really means nothing 
in particular beyond the fact thai such beds are considered post- 
Eocene." 
On the other hand, Prof. Gilbert Van [ngen, of Columbia Uni- 
vesity, who examined the material from the Lucas well, reports it to 
be a compact quartz sandstone, with grains of round to crystalline 
pellucid quart/. The fossils are in Layers, the oyster shells having 
been apparently washed into their present position b}^ wave action. 
The interspaces between the oyster Shells are occupied hy less com- 
pact sand, full of lamellibranch shells. These are seldom perfect, and 
on the whole the material is so fragmentary that identification of the 
species is very difficult or impossible. They are clearly Tertiary, but. 
whether Eocene or Miocene does not clearly appear. Professor Van 
Ingen's list comprises Osirea sp., Turritella sp., and Mactra sp. 6 
These were all he could make out. 
It is noticed that Prof essor Van [ngen is doubtful as to whether 
these petroleum-bearing beds are Eocene or Miocene. Dr. W. IT. 
Dall examined material found in various wells in the vicinity of 
Beaumont and placed all the shells examined by him in the Miocene. 
The specimens examined were from the Island well at a depth of 800 
feet, the Bayou City well between L,875 and L,910 feet, and the Texas 
Oil and Pipe Line Company's well between 940 and 1,036 feet. The 
material from this last well was the actual oil-bearing rock and the 
source of supply for that well. The other two wells are not on Spin- 
dletop and are dry. r I ne fossils from the Island well are Natica 
tuomeyi Whitfield var. Crassinella, sp. like (jalvestonensis Harris, 
and Corbula (fragment). From the Ba3 7 ou City well the shells were 
badly broken and show small Mulinia, Balanus sp. (fragments), and 
the earbone of small fish. Of these Dr. Dall says: "These Bayou City 
fossils are uncharacteristic, but with very little doubt belong to 
the Miocene similar to that penetrated at about the same depth by 
the artesian well at Galveston some years since." In the Texas Oil 
and Pipe Line well the rock is described as a hard gray marl with 
water-worn oysters like O. virginica and probably Miocene. 
a Science, new series, Vol. XIV, 1901, p. 327. 
''Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Eng., Vol. XXXI, 1901, p. 366. 
