Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-02-11

| exist in France and Great Britain. II has only
been newly realized that in Texas there is q
| chalk bed nearly as large rs the whole of Eng
land. stratum of this material parts of
which are 500 fee. thick, stretches clear across
the state from the Red river to the Rio Grande
1t is a vast accumulation of mineral wealth, far
more valuable than all the gold mines of this
| country put together
The Frenchman wanted to get chalk for
making artificial marbles. For doing this all
ingenious process has recently been invented.
In nature marble is made out Of chalk by
water, which per colates through the chalky
deposits, dissolves the chalk particle by
particle and crystallizes it, mountain pressure
solidifying it. 1t has been found that similar
results may be accomplished by chemical
means. First. slices of chalk are dipped into
color bath, staining them with tints that will
Initiate any kind of marble known. For this
purpose the same mineral stains are used
employed i'll nature. For example, to produce
counterfeit verde antique oxide of copper is
utilized. In like manner green, pink, black
and other colorings are obtained. Next. the
chalk slices go into. another bath, by which
they are hardened and crystalized coming out
to all intents and purposes real marble
WHAT THE DEPOSITS WILL BE USED FOR.
This French firm. which will show large ex-
hibit of its product at the worlds fair proposes
to draw for its raw material upon tho chalk
beds Of Texas. But these deposits are valuable
for many other purposes. At present two-thirds
OF the cement consumed in this country
amounting to S2,000,000 yearly, is imported
from abroad. There lie no reason why all of it
should not be manufactured from the chalk of
the lone star state. Whiting, which is now
fetched across the ocean in ships, can be OBJ
ralned In unlimited quantities from the same
source. 1t used to be supposed that the de-
posts OF the chalk-forming age in the United
States were merely sands and clays but these
were only sediments left along the shores of
what was once a great interior sea in the midst
Of the continent of North America The sedi-
ments OF the deeper waters of that inland sea-
which covered Texas and New Mexico were of
the finest chalk. Thus in that part of the
world today is found the greatest chalk region
on the earth. The rocks and landscapes are all
of chalky Wilderness. The streams flow through
canons of chalk and some of the cities, like
Austin and San Antonio, are built OF this sub
stance, which Is cut out in blocks from the hills
with ak and saw, afterward hardening into firm
stone.
The chalk beds are chiefly made ND Of the
hmy shells of very small animals called fora
minifsra, which lived in the great inland seas
1t has been said that the remains Of such little
creatures have added more to the mass Of ma
terials composing the crust of the globe than
the bones of all the elephants. whales hippo
Potaml and other monsters that ever lived"
Whole mountains are composed of them. At
Suggsville is a chain of hills 800 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 microscopic some are Of compare
lively large size-notably sort about the shape
and bigness of a dollar, which, from their re-
semblance to coins, have received the name of
nummilites, or fossil money
THE OYSTER AGE.
The chalk-forming epoch was conspicuously
the age of oysters. In Texas banks composed
of the shells Of 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 q score of
species. There were oysters with shells that
weighed twenty or thirty pounds each. which
had great beaks that curled outward Others
had shells with saw-like toothed edges There
were some miniature species. too small to be
OF use to man, If human beings had lived at
that time. These mollusks were the common
food Of great fishes long ago extinct, which had
strong grinding teeth in the roofs of their
mouths. They we're also gobbed by the toothed
birds. which then were numerous Star fishes.
resembling very closely their descendants of
today, preyed upon them. That was the era
OF strange and monstrous reptiles. There were
As vet no mammals. 1t was then that the first
towering plants appeared. Scattered plenti-
fully through the chalk beds are what Geologist
Robert T. Hill, who gave the writer most of
his information on this subject, calls fossil
| Strawberries" They are perfect casts of the
dubious ends of plant stems from which grow
| the petals of flowers that bloomed millions of
| years ago. Being covered with mud they de-
| cayed and left molds, which filled I'D with limy
ooze. the latter hardening ana thus preserving
| in this wonderful manner the form Of the vege-
table structure.
FROM GYPSUM BEDS.
In the vast "red clay" region of Texas and
\ southern Kansas, where all the landscape is of a
brilliant red color, the strata composing the
hills are interaid with thicknesses of gypsum,
which looks like white sugar. This is suiphate
| of lime, whereas chalk is carbonate of lime BY
| driving the water out of it plaster of paris is
made. From the same material new sort Of
wall plaster is manufactured. For both of
| these purposes the material is largely mined, as
| well as to produce an artificial stone called
''staff, ~ of which most of the exposition build
| iugs at Chicago are constructed. So-caIied
| ''chalk' school crayons are made out OF the
| same substance. and also jewelry and other
| ornamental articles. These gypsum beds were
deposited on the bottom of the great inland sea
at period long previous to the chalk for ming
epoch. They are composed OF lime derived
directly from the rocks of the land and de-
posted chemically by the sea water which WAS
gypsum sands in southern New Mexico look
| like beds Of snow, stretching for miles and
miles. All Of that arid region known as the
| Great Basin Is n strange and weird country
| The rivers, instead Of flowing to the sea- dis
| appear in the plains. drunk up by dry soil and
evaporatsd by the hot sun. There, it is said,
one "climbs for water and digs for wood" To
find water one must ascend the hills which are
green, while the valleys are deserts. People
dig up for fuel the roots of the desert plants.
| which are enormously developed for the pur-
pose of gathering moisture.
Until recently it has been supposed that true
flints did not exist in America. Accordingly,
enormous quantities of this material are an
nually imported from Dieppe for making fine
pottery. In the factories in New Jersey alone
from so 900 to 10000 tons are used yearly
Porcelain is composed Of a mixture Of flint,
feldspar and clay. Now, however, it has been
ascertained that enormous beds Of fiints exist in
Texas near Austin. Flint is itself a fossil pro-
duct being made up Of the skeletons Of micro
scopic sponges which gathered together in the
ooze at the bottom of the inland sea, forming
| nodules.
| MINING FOR FOSSILS.
Not the least important industry sustained by
these deposits Of past ages in Texas 10 that Of
mining for fossils for scientific purposes. In the
gypsum beds are found the remains Of gigantic
batrachians from. 10 to Is feet long, like frogs
with short tails. Only few millions of years
ago these creatures were very plentiful, judging
from the number Of them dug up. In some parts
Of the ANNA state laroa amnuDfa of That IL