The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-09-01
Where They Are at and Their Various
Kinds.

Kinds.
The mineral developments ofTexas are as
yet in their infancy We know that
we have minerals of various kinds.
and some of them of exceeding value
and importance to the future of the state.
but owing to the paucity of population
and of that surplus capital which permits
development, they are as yet inchoate. In a
new country and especially in vast prairie
country, like ours, we must rank
COAL
first, We rank it first because
we will need it for fuel in our homes and
we will need it for fuel to carry on those
great industries where water power is lack
ing. Within the past eighteen months coal
has been discovered in several localities
where its existence was unsupported before
and having been submitted to proper tests,
through the examination of experts, il has
proven to be Of most desirable quality, and
there is no question as to quantity. In
Llano county Il bed of bituminous coal was
some six years ago discovered 1t was eX-
plored sufficiently TO show Il vein of two
feet of thickness, Of excellent quality
and giving evidence, beyond a per
adventure, almost, of being pres
ent in incXhaustible quantity. In
Concho and Coleman counties bitumi-
nous coal was found some years since in cX-
tenSive amounts. On the Rio Grande river
some sixty miles below Preside del Norte,
still another splendid bed of the same sort
of coal was found. These beds in Concho
and Coleman counties and near Preside del
Norte are near by the Texas Il Pacific
railroad line, and will soon be opened up
for market. In Palo Pinto county, near
Gordon, a station on the Texas q Pacific
railway, and in Stephens and Eastland
counties, bituminouS coal beds are now be-
ing worked. Those in Stephens and East
land counties are doubtless but continue
tons of the beds found in Coleman
In Wise county, on the surveyed
line of the Dallas & Wichita railroad, u
most excellent bed has been opened, said
to furnish coal superior TO that from the Nc
AliSter mines now so extensively used in
Texas, and a company will work these
mines as soon as railroad facilities shall JUS
tity which will be ere a great while. Can
mel coal has been found in Kinney county,
bordering on the central Rio Grande u
number of beds having been opened, show
ing veins from three to four feet of thick
ness. There is no question but that the
carboniierous formation extends from Llano
to Wichita county, surface groupings of Il
fair quality showing in numerous places in
all the counties in a line between those
counties, and including them. In Rob
ertson, Bastrop and some of the
counties Of southeast Texas, the Ignite or
brown coal, has beed for number of years
known to exist, and it has been most salts
torially used for household purposes. 1t
does well enough for cooking and heating
purposes, and makes steam well, but will
not coke by ordinary processes. In Harri-
son county, but few weeks ago, an article
of bitumnious coal, was discovered, declared
by experiments and by persons familiar
with coal, to be of superior character. II
this be 50, the supply is immense--all that
could be asked, and there is no region oil
the state where it could come into better
play or be in more demand situated in
Harrison county, is in the very midst OF
the splendid iron region of the state. Pass
ing ON from coal, we will now speak Of
GYPSUM,
There being an abundace of it in the state.
Aside from its utilization as u
into use In building PURPOSES
and in the arts, and, eleven years ago there
were three hundred and twenty-one mills
at work in the United States for grinding it,
and the products then amounted in value
annually in the United States TO 50, 500, 600
y
pose that it has very greatly increased in
demand and in manufacture. All up
through the Pan Handle country of this
state along every little river and creek, hay
ing its source from the same region of Red
river, it is found in quantities incaculabla,
and in few short years the railroads being
constructed in that direction will open up a
market for it and it will be
exported in countless tons. Among the
OTHER MINERALS
known to exist in the state, but as vet so
little developed as TO require little more
than passing mention, are gold found in
several of the mountainous regions of the
state, but not in quantities to justify work
ing; and argentilerous galena, OF silver and
lead ores. This latter has been found in the
Chcnati mountains, west of San Antonio
in the Guadalupe mountains, and in Llano
and Mason counties, and indeed, in Concho
and Burnet counties, but only in the first
mentioned places to amount to anything.
There is no doubt but that mines will be
opened in the Chenati mountains and in
i.lano county, when railroad facilities ,.!
Justify IL.
Next IN rank comes copper, and wo say
next in rank because more has been done TO
ascertain the quality of The copper ores of
the state and the extent to which they exist
than the other minerals we shall name in
this general mention. In Presidio, Mason,
Archer and Wichita counties this ore is
known TO be most abundant and some shin
ments have been made from all these coun-
ties but mostly from the latter two. There
has been Il company already formed to mine
copper in Wichita and Archer counties and
all The capital necessary for successful
turtherance of the enterprise will be provid-
ed when II is feasible to commence the work.
Pyrosuletc, tourmalines garncts, amcthvsts.
molybdena, asbestos steatitc or soOpstnnc'
obsdian. jasper opals, phrcnitcS,
agates cornelian, chalcydony, sa!t,
fc)dspar and porcelain CLAWS and slate
We, perhaps, should say something more of
salt than to merely mention It. Ii exists in
magnificent abundance along the upper
Pecos river being seen in massive bells IN
what are supposed to be dried salt lakes. as
many lakes are still to he found. In Van
2andt county, ut Grand Saline station, on
the Texas and Pacific road, there are eytcn.
sive salt works, saline springs Astounding
Along the LOgura MadSe, in Nueccs and
Comeron counties, incXhuustiblc beds of
salt are found, formed by the evaporation
of water swept out by high tides aud
cyclones from The lcgun0. During the war
these salt deposits formed the entire source
OF supplv for the people Of the state, wagons
going several hundred miles, in great trains
to haul the article away, OF
BUILDING STONES
the state has n magnificent and varied sup
ply In cast Texas, the building stone Is a
coarse, heavy ioruginous species, formed
oil tprruipl sands md plnN npl ,4l.tl, I "a. 81