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The Grand Saline Salt Works, situated on the southern side of the saline, are the only other works in operation. The brine used at these salt works is obtained from a well 335 feet deep, of which about 125 feet are in the salt deposit. These works employ only a few men, and turn out about 30 cwt. of salt daily. The brine here, which shows 54° by salometer or 25 lbs. of salt to 100 lbs. of brine, is pumped into a tank 18 feet long, 16 feet wide and 3 feet deep, from which it flows into a series of 14 evaporating kettles of 90 gallons capacity each. The market is mostly local.

The new Richardson Works were not in operation at the time of our visit, but preparations were being made to manufacture 400 barrels per day.

The supply of brine to be used at the Richardson Works will be obtained from a well 520 feet deep. This well has been bored clear through the salt into a gray sand, and the record of the boring shows the rock salt to have an actual thickness of 300 feet. The surface water has been piped off, and a spring issuing from the sand underlying the salt is being used for the formation of brine. The proprietors think by this means the impurities found in the surface water may be avoided.

Sections of these wells are given elsewhere and need not be repeated here.

LIGNITE.

Extensive areas of lignite occur in both Wood and Houston counties, and a deposit of the same class of fuel occurs in Trinity county near the northeastern corner.

In Wood county the lignite deposits examined occur most on the western side of the county near Alba station on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway. In this region there are three distinct deposits of lignite: First, the upper bed cropping out close to the Alba Coal Mining Company's shaft, a second one near Alba, and a third a short distance north of that village. These deposits cover a known area of sixteen square miles, and while nothing is positively known about the two lower beds, the upper has a thickness of eight feet at the Alba Mine, but thickens on the dip. A section of the Coal Mining Com- pany's shaft shows:

1. Gray surface sand ....................... 6 feet.
2. Blue shaly (laminated) clays ........... 12 feet.
3. Lignite ................................. 8 feet.

Half a mile south the section of a well shows the lignite to have thickened to thirteen feet and to have gone down forty feet from the surface.

The Alba Coal Mining Company own or control about one thousand acres of this area and are engaged in mining the lignite, drawing their supplies altogether from the upper deposit. This company commenced work in February, 1890, but did not ship any of their products