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springs of Pennsylvania. He bought a large tract of land in Nacogdoches, and died during the boring of the well above named; and then the work ceased and has not been resumed.
Asphaltum, in limited quantities, flows from the crevices of limestones in Travis county, north of Austin, and also from similar rocks near Burnet, in Burnet county. The supply is too limited to be of any commercial value, or to encourage boring for oil. Near the top of Gordon mountain, in Montague county, are some beds of asphaltum of small extent. These are in the cretaceous limestones.
Near Sabine Pass, and a few miles east of it, the oil is said to flow so plentifully as to make the sea calm to a considerable distance, even, during storms. A few miles north of this, at Sour Lake, are also oil springs, where oil floats upon the surface of the water.
EPSOM SALTS.
In Cooke county, on Indian creek, about eight miles southwest of Whitesboro, epsom salts (sulphate of magnesia) was manufactured largely during the war. A number of wells were there sunk to the depth of about sixteen feet, from which plenty of strong water was obtained for manufacturing on a large scale.
COPPERAS
was also made in large quantities on Copperas branch, four miles north of Whitesboro. At this branch, there are bluffs of alum shales, containing alum, sulphuret of iron, and fragments of coal. About five hundred pounds a day of copperas was here made during about two years. From here, nearly the whole State was supplied. A few hundred pounds of alum were also made at the same place.
SALTPETRE-NITRATE OF POTASSA
abounds in caves in Burnet, San Saba, and other counties to the west of them having caves in the limestone region. In the western part of Burnet, a few miles from Bluff ton, on a high hill, there is a cave in the lime rock of the lower silurian. Its entrance is about fourteen feet in diameter one way and ten feet the other, down perpendicular about twenty feet, at the bottom of which the opening, about ten









