A SECTION
FROM
TERRELL, KAUFMAN COUNTY,
TO
SABINE
PASS ON THE GULF OF MEXICO.
BY WM. KENNEDY.
INTRODUCTORY.
In the First Annual Report of this Survey, Dr. Penrose, Geologist for East Texas, examined the rivers crossing the Tertiary deposits, and described the beds forming the sections shown along the Brazos, Colorado and Rio Grande. The uniform sequence of the various deposits, as. exhibited in these river sections, led to the general inference that these, or deposits of a similar character, would be found extending clear across the State, from the Louisiana line on the east to the Rio Grande on the west.
While these river sections are very valuable in many respects, they do not give a consecutive view of the whole of the beds constituting the various divisions of the Tertiary and newer strata in Southern and Eastern Texas. This is. necessarily so, as the river banks have not, except at few places, sufficient height to disclose any continuous order of succession of the beds. From the series of bluffs presented here and there, sometimes comparatively close together, but in many cases at long intervals apart on the three rivers mentioned, Dr. Penrose constructed the sections described by him in his preliminary report.
With the twofold object of ascertaining the continuity of the deposits through the region east of Dr. Penrose's Brazos river section, and filling in the breaks necessarily left by him, in order to have as complete a section across the Tertiary areas of the State as could be obtained, I was instructed to run a line southeasterly across these areas from the border of the Cretaceous to the Gulf.
In making such a line of sections, several very important conditions had to be taken into consideration, the most important being the total absence of reliable maps of the region to be traversed. The old maps published by the General Land Office, while useful in many respects, are practically of little or no value for geologic work, and for locating purposes are often very misleading. No roads are shown upon these maps, and nearly every stream is either incorrectly located, or not to"
First Annual Report, Geological Survey of Texas, 1889, pp. 22-58.