58
forming a hill some fifty feet above the river is a hard white limestone, which will be described more fully further on.
Mr. E. T. Dumble, State Geologist, has noted the Fayette sand at the following localities not mentioned above: Beeville, Bee County; Goliad, Goliad County; Victoria, Victoria County; Cuero, De Witt County; Hallettsville, Lavaca County; Columbus, Colorado County; Wharton, Wharton County, and elsewhere.
R. H. Loughridge has also noted the "Grand Gulf" Beds near Cuero, in De Witt County; near Oakdale, Live Oak County, and in Duval County.
Hence there is but little doubt of the continuous extension of these beds from the Sabine the Rio Grande. As already stated (p. 50) it seems probable that the beds above and below Roma, containing the large Ostrea georgiana?, and even certain beds up as far as the mouth of the Rio Salado and Carrizo, belong to the Fayette Series.
SOILS OF THE FAYETTE BEDS.
The country underlaid by these beds is a rolling prairie, stretching across the State from the Sabine River to the Rio Grande, parallel to the coast and from fifty to one hundred miles back from it. It borders the eastern edge of the great timber region, which also separates it from the parallel prairies of the Basal Clays and the Central Texas region. This belt is in places over sixty miles wide, and is probably sometimes over one hundred. The soil is in many parts of remarkable fertility, of a black clayey or sandy character, and heavily charged with carbonate of lime. In its local fertility this belt is in striking contrast with the corresponding region in Louisiana and Mississippi, which is often a barren sandy country, of but little agricultural value. This difference is due to the fact that the Fayette Beds in Texas, like the underlying Timber Belt Beds, are much richer in lime than in the other Gulf States, and consequently much better suited for agricultural purposes.
POST-TERTIARY DEPOSITS.
The Post-Tertiary deposits of East Texas have not as yet been thoroughly studied, and the following remarks are given simply as a preliminary statement of their occurrence. For the sake of convenience they will be treated under the following headings:
- 1. Upland Gravel.
- 2. River Silt.
- 3. Coast Clays.
"Report on the Cotton Production of the State of Texas," Tenth Census of the United States, Vol V, p. 679.