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The name East Texas is generally applied to that part of the State lying east of the Brazos River. This area is bounded on the north by Indian Territory and Arkansas, on the east by Louisiana, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, and on the west by the great prairie region of Central Texas. A large part of this area is a heavily timbered region, and marks the southwestern terminus of the great Atlantic timber belt, extending from the Arctic regions continuously along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, until it finally disappears in the mesquite and cactus prairies between the Colorado River and the Rio Grande.

The country consists largely of the in-shore part of the bottom of the old Tertiary Sea, which once covered the whole Gulf coast. This area has been elevated into a table land one hundred to seven hundred feet above the present sea level, sloping gradually to the southeast, and emptying its waters in the same direction into the Gulf of Mexico. Since its elevation it has undergone great erosion, and is still being denuded at a tremendous rate. The strata are all composed of sands and clays, and succumb very readily to the eroding action of the atmospheric agencies. The result is that all that is left of the once level surface of this table land are a few flat-topped hills and ridges, such as are seen in the northeastern counties. East Texas as thus defined comprises a coast prairie region on the south, a great timber region in the center, and an interior prairie country in the north and northwest. The coast prairies reach inland along the Sabine about fifty miles, but as we go west they spread farther and farther towards the interior, until, when we come to the Brazos, they reach up the river for over a hundred miles. Near the Gulf shore they are flat and low, rising twenty to thirty feet above tide water, thickly covered with grass and cut by steep-sided channels of many rivers and creeks. The monotony of the scenery is broken only by the narrow strips of timber which follow the meandering courses of the streams down towards the Gulf of Mexico. As we go inland the country slowly rises, and though the prairies in their easterly part maintain their flat character, to the west they become more undulating and broken, and groves of mesquite, hackberry, cottonwood, and other trees are seen in many places. Finally, we come to the beautiful rolling country of Washington and Grimes counties, the southern border of the timber region. Continuing west across the Brazos, the prairies rapidly encroach more and more on the timber of the interior, until they cut