The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1893-02-23
MINERAL WONDERS.
WEALTH DISCOVERED IN THE CHALK
BEDS OF TEXAS.
Greatest Chalk Region in the World-How
1t Was Formed and What It is Good
For-Where Mineral Called
Staff is Obtained

Aho question: WAS aSkeu lew gay
ago by the agent of French firm
who applied for information to the
geological survey. He did not know,
because the text books OF geology say
that there are no great chalk deposits
in this country, such as exist in France
and Great Britain. IG has only been
newly realized that in Texas there is
chalk bed nearly as large as the
whole of England. a stratum of this
material, parts of which are 500 feet
thick, stretches clear across the state
from the Red River to the Rio Grsnde.
1t is a vast accumulation of mineral
wealth, tar more valuable than all the
gold mines of this country put TO-
gether.
The FIenchman wanted to get
chalk for making artificial marbles.
For doing this au iIgeniouious pro
Cess has been invented. In nature
marble is made out of chalk by water
which percolates through the chalky
deposits, diss0lves the chalk parti le
by particle aud crystallizes it, noun"
tain pressure soIidltying it. 1t has
been found that similar results can be-
accomplished by chemical means
First, slices of chalk are dipped into "a
color bath, staining them with tints
that will initiate any kind of marble
known. For this purpose the same
mineral stains are used as are en-
Al nd in, 10 -
produce counterfeit "verde antiquen
oxide of copper is used. In like man
ner green, piuk, black and other color
ings may be obtained. Next, the
chalk slices 60 into another bath, by
which they are hardened and crystal.
Itzed, coming out to all intents and
purposes real marble.
WHAT THE DEPOSITS WILL BE USED
FOR.
This French firm, which will show
large exhibit OF its product at the
Worlds lair, proposes TO draw for its
law material uprr the chalk beds of
Texas. But these deposits are valu-
able for many other purposes. AT
prtsen two thirds Of the cement con-
sumed in this cOultry, amounting to
S2,O00,O00 yearly, is importer from
abroad There is no reason why all OF
IL should not be manufactni ed from
the chalk of the Lone Star State.
Whiting, which is now fetched across
the o ;ean in ships, can be obtained in
unlimited quantities from the same
source. 1t used to be supposed that
the deposits OF the chalk iOl mig age
in the United States We're merely
sands and clays, but these were only
sediments lett along the shores OF
what was once a great interior sea in
the midst OF the continent of North
America. The sediments of the daep-
er waters of that inland sea, which
coveret Texas aud New Mexico, were
of the finest chalk. Thus in that part
of the world To-Day is found the great
EST c"alk region on the earth. The
rocks and landscapes are all of chalky
wilderness. The streams flow through
canOYs of chalk and some Of the cities,
like Austin and San Antonio, ARE built
OF this su bstance, which is cut out in
blocks from the hills with ak and saw,
afterward hardening into firm stone.
The chalk beds are chiefly made up
of the limy shells OF very small ami
mails called foraminifera. which
lived in great inland seas. IL has
been eaid that the remains of such
little creatures have added more to
the mass of materials composing the
crust OF the globe than the bones of all
the elephants, whales, hippOtOtami
and other monsters that ever lived"
Whole mountains are composed of
them At Suggsvlle is chain OF
hills 300 feet high that is literally
formed out of the shells of a single
species. The Great Pyramid of Egypt
is built of them. While most of Them
are so small as to be almost micro
4copc some are of Comparatively large
a sort about the thape
and bigness of dollar, which, from
their resemblance to coins, have re-
ceived the name of nummitities, or
fossil money"
THE OYsRER AGE.
The chalk forming epoch was con-
spicuously the age Ut oysters. In
Texas banks composed of the shells If
these bivalves twenty feet thick and
thousands OF square miles in area are
found. Whereas nowadays there is
only one kind of oyster, differentiated
into half dozen varieties, then there
were more than ecore OF species.
There were oysters with shells hat
twenty or thirty pounds
zach, which had great beaks that
curled outward. Others bad shells |
with saw-like toothed edges. There
were some miniature species, too |
mall to he of use to man, if human |
beings had lived at that time. These |
n0lIusks were tine common food OF
great fishes long ago extinct, which |
mad strong grinding teeth in
he oofs of heir mouths. They were
llso gobbled by the tootbed |
birds, which were then numerous.
Star fishes, resembling very closely |
her descendants of today, preyed
Upon them That was the era of
strange and monstrOus reptiIee.
There were as yet no mammals. 1t
was then that tine first Towering
D!ants appeared. Scattered pIenn-
ully through the chalk beds are
what Geolo0ist Robert 7. Hill, who
rave the writer most of his informa-
ion on this subject, calls ''fossil
tra wberries." They are perfect
lasts OF he bulhous ends Of plant
ta,,,c frnp, an h ioh f,roU tho pata Io of