The Texas Almanac for 1867 with Statistics, Descriptive and Biographical Sketches, etc., Relating to Texas. Page: 64
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64 TEXAS ALMANAc
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extends in a westerly course toward the Hondo creek, where, at the distance
of eight miles,"it appears again. It has a light gray color, a fine grain, and
a very compact texture, yet so soft that it can easily be cut with a knife or
sawed into thin boards. It is an excellent material for the construction of
furnaces, fireplaces, inkstands, etc., etc. It can also be used for fence-posts,
as is done in some parts of New-England. Pounded fine, and mixed with a
little grease or tallow, it firms a very durable article to lessen friction in the
axles of wagons "aid carriages, for which purpose wagoners from a distance
obtain it, considering it neater, better, and more lasting for that use than any
thing else.
There are some large veins of ore containing a small per cent of copper on
the Little Llano river, about eight miles above its mouth. It resembles the
gray oxide of copper, and, on exposure to the air, becomes more or less coated
with a blueish green color. Its composition is mostly iron, and it is very
similar to surface indications at the copper mines of Ducktown in the south-
eastern part of East-Tennessee. It is there termed by the miners " gossan,"
or .the " blossom" of copper. These Ducktown mines have been a source of
great wealth to their owners; and it is possible this Llano mine may prove
to be equally profitable. The ore is in veins of a few feet thickness, between
gneissoid metamorphic rocks, on the borders of the granite. These veins were
partly covered with gravel and soil, formed by the disintegration of -the
granite hills, near the base of which they are situated. Their geological
position is such as to lead us to expect that mining will here be a lucrative
business.
The metamtorphic are those stratified rocks whose form and composition
have been altered by heated granite or other rocks of igneous origin; hence
they are rarely in horizontal strata, but more or less inclined, broken, and
contorted by the immense power exerted upon them at the time of the
upheaval of the granite and its associated rocks. The metamorphic rocks are
here on the outskirts of the granite in highly inclined strata, having evidently
been thus lifted up at the time of the upheaval of the granite from its fiery
bed below. These metamorphic rocks are interesting, as commonly being
the depositories of the precious metals, especially gold and silver. They
occur over quite a large section of country, a few miles south and south-east
from Fort Mason, in Mason county, from which they extend westward into
geologically unexplored regions. They -consist' chiefly of micaceous shales,
with quartzose veins, in appearance much resembling the gold-bearing rocks
of some parts of North-Carolina and California. At a place about eight miles
south of Fort Mason we obtained a small quantity of gold in the debris of
these rocks; but, as our stay there was less than an hour, those rocks need
another and much more thorough examination.
, Bowie, Davis, Marion, and other counties in North-eastern Texas abound
in iron ores, some of which have been wrought to a considerable extent.
They are said to yield about 50 per cent of metallic iron, and are hematites
or peroxides of iron. In Bastrop and Caldwell counties the same species of
iron ore is abundant in the sandstones of the Tertiary Period. Enough is
already known to assure us that the State has sufficient iron, not only to
supply its own wants, but also those of the entire South during many ages.
These hematites, although they may yield only from forty to fifty per cent
of metallic iron, can, withoiit doubt, be profitably manufactured, on account
of the abundance of fuel in their neighborhood, the facility of transportation,
and the little expense of obtaining the ore, which is generally in hills at the
surface. Most of the mines of Pennsylvania afford only about 50 per cent of
metallic iron, and that State produces about half of the entire iron made in
the United States.
Extensive lignite or brown coal beds are in alarge portion of the Tertiary
region of the State, as far as hasyet been examined, namely, in Bastrop and its
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The Glaveston News. The Texas Almanac for 1867 with Statistics, Descriptive and Biographical Sketches, etc., Relating to Texas., book, December 1866; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123772/m1/66/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.