The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-11-04
MINING NOTES.
GEN ERAL GEOLOGY OF THE STATE
OF TEXAS, SOME VALUABLE
DISCOVERIES.

DISCOVERIES.
I To the Statesman:
ST.. LOUIS, Mo-, October 81.
! The writer in 1873, on his way to ex-
I anime silver mines in Durango, Mex,
went from TeXarkana to Houston, San
Antonio, and then by stage to Eagle Pass,
remained several days in each town and
examined the country adjacent. coal
vein at Eagle Pass extends up and down
the Rio Grande for one hundred miles !;
the vein is three feet thick and of the
brown variety. On the Mexican side this
coal IN two basins forty miles wide.
The Sa5inas and Alamo rivers follow an
antichinal axis, and coal is here near the
surface, aud extends from these rivers to
near the Santa Rosa mountains, where
basaltic dyke has lifted the coal measures
1000 feet high, and bent the strata in
steep basin of communicable. The vein
had just been opened at the time | was
there was six feet high, and dipped at an
angle of 7OS from a horizontal line.
The silver veins of the Santa Rosa noun
tains lie parallel with this coal, and half
mile west. Both the silver and coal
ranges can be traced for twenty
miles, and will be an important
industry to develop for fuel
and ore for the new reduction works to be
put up at San Antonio. This coal field, |
Judge, extends for fifty miles east of the
Rio Grande in Texas, and same mineral
belt and anthracite coal in the Santa Rosa
mountains, will cross Preside and Tom
Green counties in Western Texas for long
distance. During recent trip to Old
Mexico / went to Texarkana, Dallas, to
FL Paso and down the Mexican Central,
500 miles to examine mines, this gave me
n new view of Central and Western Texas.
| saw evidences of large coal fields, and
pOrphyry and other rocks between Ell
Paso and Rio Pecos river, showing some
topography, and signs III the cuts of the
roadside as seen in old Mexico, and lead
ing practically to the conclusion
that the semi-anthra cite coal
I'd silver belt crosses north and south
through Western Texas, for hundreds of
miles. In 1870 | saw 100 pounds of that
rich malachite and gray copper ore sent
from Jack and Archer counties. Three
years ago saw in New York, 200 pounds
sent from montague county, and conclu
sion reached is that this copper field ex
tends though five counties, and
contains great undeveloped resources
in copper and silver. | read the
report made by Gen. McClelland of these
mines, and other reports. The want of
success has come from want of knowl-
edge of the basin and vein system of this
copper field. When this is better under
stood the mining of copper and smelling
of the ore will become permanent Texas
industry. Last winter | received some
specimens from Llano county that look
favorable to that being copper, silver
and gold region. There are extensive
mica deposits in western Texas. | saw
in 1878, on the stage road west of Uvalde,
what appeared to be an extensive field of
manganese ore. The ore in cOnsid |
cradle quantities is exposed along the old |
Fort Clarke stage road. The coal basins !
of Texas are on a grand scale, like Hi
nois and Kansas, from % to POO miles |
wide, and her other mineral fields |
will be on similar scale. The strata of !
state is favorable for salt, oil and natural /
gas wells. My mining experience com
menced in 1874 in the Wisconsin lead |
field Have examined the north and south |
shores of Lake Superior, the Appalachian |
belt from Georgia to Maine, the Ozark /
mineral system in south Mis-
souri,, northern and southwestern Arkan- |
sas, which include great undeveloped
iron, copper. lead, zinc, silver and gold, !
resources; and two trips in old Next
90, examining the states of Durango, Chi
HI hua and Coahuilla. Texas lies between
,hese fields and has similar geology and
mineral character. What the state wants
IS a practical geological survey of the
mineral fields, and this to form the sub
structure of the mining industry of the
,tate. My work has been an individual
enterprise; my observations are complete
n sixteen aliases, aud include over 5000
geological mars and sections, and dlscov-
,ry of twelve laws in the aynamical geo
ogy of the vein system of mineral fields.
j. VAN CLEvE PHILLIPS, Geologist.
FL Espinal, small village in the dis
riot of Jachitan, has been entirely de-
trovad hy tho H0ods which hava haen