The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1885-09-23
TEXAS MINERALS.
Some Which are Found in Llano County,
and Others Which Exist in Fer
tile Imagination Only.

Editor san Antonio Light.
BLuFf'ToN, Llano county, September
lG.-Several months ago an oyer-enthu-
siastic geOlogist and mineralogist, whose
name is neither Smith nor Brown,
equipped himself with bottle of corn
juice and stone hammer and started
out to develop the mineral resources of
Llano county. lie discovered in great
abundance land in his mind gold, silver.
lead, copper, zine, iron, manganese, bis
muth, asbestos, mica, photographic stone,
rock salt, Iceland spar and numerous
other valuable minerals. lie couldn't
go out into the woods without falling
down over an Outoropping ledge of some
of the precious metals-could go out up
on sandstone blum and scare up gold
or silver mine rs easily as good war
mint" dog could scare up jack rabbit
In the same locality. natural result
of these surprising developments, sup
posed mineral lands took boom, and
every land owner began to feel that he
was the happy possessOr of untold mil
lions. Every man carried pocket full
Of specimens. and would pluck his
friends coniidentially aside and whisper
the mOmentous fact that he had the
"old original Mexican shaitn on his land.
Ii has never been decided what things
the "old original Mexican shaft" con-
tains, but at all events its possession
seemed to be considered tantamount to
fortune; and, rs said shaft is very
numerous, wealthy men were us thick as
crows ut cOrn-pulling.
The geologlst In question not finding
local capitalists able or willing to furnish
ready money to work the mines and keep
the suffers department up to the proper
standard sent a lot of specimens to n
| Chicago man, who finally came on to
rake in few nuggets of the purest ore
| for family use. On his arrival the geolo-
| gist took him out into n lonesome stretch
of country, where they managed to get
lost In II cedar brake, and remained two
| days during the rainy season, living on
chapparel berries and terrapins, which
they roasted and took on the half shell.
| After this experience and n few Others of
like nature the Chicago man concluded
that scooping in mineral wealth in Texas
was not cOngenial to his temperament
and returned to Chicago with the i'm
| preston that the study of geology as Il
| profession Is not calculated TO develop
the little Ratchet kind of veracity in man
to any alarming extent. lie said that
the geOlogist might be sincere, and pos
sibly, by the aid of science and personal
liberty In its bottled form. might be able
to see the minerals of which he wrote,
but after spending several weeks
and several hundred dollars, he 1.-THE c,
NJ decided that ordinary ungeological
minds could not grasp the idea, or al
least could not grasp the minerals.
The Chicagoan's experience had the
effect of making Others doubtful, and
the mineral excitement gradually died
out until now the people are quiet AZ
usual, trying to get their wealth with
pillow and hoe, instead ofpick, shovel ant
washing pan.
But while 1t ia folly for men to lister
to every rock breaker who comes alOnl
and imagine they have mines Of golC
and silver, there Is no doubt that LlanI
county has some valuable mineral de
posits that may some day be developed
with vast profit. Among these are cop
per, possibly lead, and without doub
iron ola superior quality, but of course
the quantity OF proper richness remain
to be determined by actual development
This iron ore, which Is in the southern
part of the county, has been tested n
the State university ut Austin and pro
nOunoed magnetic iron. equal, or eve
superior to the Swedish iron. Ilydrau
lie limestone or cement rock is also foun,
in the county. and this has been teste,
AT Austin and proved good. Rock sal
exists in the northeastern part of tn
county, but has not been developed YET
TRISIRAM DUDLEY.