History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 154
[7], iv-vii, [2], 10-826, [2] p., [56] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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15 3I OR FTXS
Of its value as a steam coal there can be
no doubt, for it has been fully tested for railroad
and other uses, and is taken as fast as it
can be mined, leaving practically none to be
sold for ordinary purposes.
Tlhe quality of coke produced gives every
promise that, with proper care in selecting
material and attention to burning, it will produce
a coke fully adapted for the best metallurgical
uses.
In addition to this central coal field there
are others on the western borders of the
State. A boring made at Eagle Pass, four
miles from the outcrop on which the Hartz
mine is situated, reached.the Nueces coal at
531 feet. Tbis coal cokes in the crucible,
and there is no doubt but that an excellent
coke can be made from it, if ovens of suitable
construction are used. This seam is the
thickest in the State, averaging nearly five
feet, and must prove of very great economic
value.
A second coal field is that containing the
deposits in Presidio county between the
Capote mountain and the Rio Grande. The
specimens of this coal which have been furnished
for analysis show it to be very high in
sulphur, but no detailed examination of it
has yet been made.
Bitumen or Asphaltum.-This valuable
material exists in Texas under several conditions.
Its most frequent occurrence is
probably in tar springs. These are found in
many places in the Tertiary and Cretaceous
formations, and occasionally among those
that are older. It is in these cases the seepage
from the beds which contain it. So far
few, if any, of these beds have been examined
to ascertain their extent or quality, for
there has been little or no demand for the
material. Among these may Iso be included
the Sour lakes of Hardin and Libertycounties, at which both bitumen and gas
occur in large quantities. In o:her places it
is found as deposits of greater or less extent,
impregnating the accompanying sande, sandstone
and limestone. These have not been
given much more attention than the springs,
but some of the localities have been examined
and specimens of the material analyzed.
The tar springs are of frequent occurrence
in certain beds of the timber belt series,
which stretch across the State in a belt approximately
parallel to the Gulf coast and
from 100 to 150 miles inland, and are at
places connected more or less with deposits
of oil. They are also found along the belt /
of country underlaid by the Fish beds, or
Eagle Ford shales, of the Cretaceous, as may
be seeh in the vicinity of Fiskville and other
localities in Travis county, and still others
southwest of the Colorado. Similar springs
are found in Burnet and other counties in
the older rocks.
The deposits which have been examined
most fully are those of Anderson county east
of Palestine, where there is an asphalt bearing
sand. This appears to be due to the
oxidation of thle residuum of oil left in the
sand. Here they are of unknown and somewhat
uncertain extent, as they are apt to run
into an oil bearing sand. This is possibly
the case with many of the deposits of east
Texas.
In Uvalde county there are several outcrops
of bitumen impregnating both sandstone
and limestone. The sandstone oyster bed
is underlaid by eight feet of black asphaltum
sandstone, from which in warm weather the
asphaltum exudes and forms small pools..
This is on the Nueces river fourteen miles
southwest of Uvalde. The stratum here described
is continuous. The stratigraphical
position is some thirty feet below the San154
P 16~ TORY P EXS
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History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. (Book)
Book containing a brief overview of the state of Texas and more specific focus on six specific counties, with extensive biographical sketches about persons related to the history of those places. An alphabetical index of persons who are included follows the table of contents at the front of the book.
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Lewis Publishing Company. History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties., book, 1893; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth29785/m1/159/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.