350  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,  1904.         [bull.  260. 
north  of  Sulphur  Fork,  in  Bowie  County  and  adjoining  areas,  but 
are  not  common  south  of  that  stream. 
The  Claiborne  is  here  represented  by  a  thin  series  of  greensands, 
ferruginous  sandstones,  and  brown  to  yellow  sands.  This  series  caps 
the  highest  hills  of  the  district,  and  apparently  includes  most,  if  not 
all,  of  the  iron-ore  deposits. 
Underlying  the  Claiborne  is  the  Sabine,  a  thick  series  of  chocolate- 
colored  clays  and  various  colored  sands,  with  occasional  beds  of  lig- 
nite or  brown  coal.  White  and  reddish  clays  occur  in  places,  being 
particularly  well  exposed  near  Queen  City,  Marshall  County. 
The  Wills  Point  clays  are  a  series  of  black,  slaty  clays  of  Midway 
age,  which  outcrop  north  of  Sulphur  Fork. 
Of  the  five  formations  above  noted  only  two — the  Claiborne  and 
the  Sabine — are  of  importance  in  connection  with  the  ore  deposits 
of  the  region. 
DISTRIBUTION  AND  OCCURRENCE  OF  THE  IRON  ORES. 
The  ores  are  present  in  great  quantity,  and  cover  an  enormous 
area;  but,  as  will  be  explained  later,  they  do  not  occur  in  particu- 
larly thick  beds  at  any  given  point.  Their  profitable  development 
will  therefore  depend  on  their  nearness  to  cheap  transportation 
routes.  In  an  agricultural  and  lumber  district,  such  as  northeast 
Texas,  the  ore  tonnage  of  any  railroad  will  form  such  a  small  per- 
centage of  the  total  freight  that  it  is  impracticable  to  build  long 
branch  lines  for  the  sake  of  the  ore  alone.  Development  of  the  ore 
deposits  will  therefore  necessarily  take  place  only  along  and  near] 
railroad  lines,  either  those  at  present  in  operation  or  those  now  under 
construction. 
The  group  of  iron-ore  deposits  tributary  to  Queen  City  is  located 
from  4  to  6  miles  north  and  northwest  of  that  town.  At  Boyd  Hill, 
on  the  Albert  Emanuel  headright,  a  heavy  deposit  of  iron  conglom- 
erate is  shown  capping  the  hill.  The  streams  have  cut  through  the 
iron-bearing  beds  in  this  district,  so  that  the  workable  deposits  are 
to  be  looked  for  only  on  the  hillsides  and  tops.  In  the  ravines  and 
on  the  slopes,  however,  much  loose  ore  has  been  carried  down  and 
spread  as  a  thin  coating  over  the  surface.  Numerous  pits  and 
trenches  have  been  cut  to  show  the  ore  beds  in  this  district.  On  the] 
slope  of  Bowie  Mountain  a  trench  shows  the  following  section : 
Section  on  slope  of  Bowie  Mountain. 
Ft.   Iu. 
Iron    ore 2     0 
Red  indurated  sand 1 0     4 
yellow    sand 0  15 
White  to  yellowish  sand 3     0 
Red    sandstone 0     1 
White    sand „,„_„_„, 0    8 
