A Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Texas Page: 81

                                
LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.
I~~~~~~~~~

varieties, witl the exception of pine, and
the prairies are beautifully rolling, affording
in some places splendid landscape
scenery, and all are covered with a luxuriant
growth of grass, mostly mesquite, supporting
countless numbers of horses, cattle,
and sheep, and  keeping  them  fat
through the winter.
"Several towns besides Corsicana have
grown up in different parts of the county,
affording every facility to the settler, as
well as good society and the advantages of
education. Some of them are handsomely
situated. They are Chatfield, Wadeville,
Mount Pisgah, Dresden and Spring Hill.
All of them contain stores, shops and
schools.
" In addition to the variety of soil, timber
and productions already mentioned,
fruits can be raised in alnost endless variety,
as has been demonstrated by George
M. Hogan, near Chatfield (whose nursery
can boast of a little of everything in the
fruit or shrubbery line), by William
Richie, near Spring Hill; by S. D. McConico,
south of Richland; by R. N.
White and the writer in the town of Corsicana.
Apples, cherries, plums, pears,
grapes, figs, strawberries, etc., have all
been raised by one or the other of these
gentlemen within the last twelve years.
Peaches and other fruits have been raised
by others. A great many fine peach orchards
can be found in this county. Many
have made fortunes right in this county
by the raising of stock; and a great many
more are making their living that way
now, to the neglect of almost everything
else."

MAJOR BURTON S GEOLOGICAL COLIECTION.
On his homestead property,-' "Gem
Hill"-appropriately named, near Corsicana,
Texas, Major Burton observed years
ago, as far back as 1868, that it embraced
a strange and remarkable formation, a
geological curiosity in lact; that here " was
experienced an agitation or agitations of
extreme violence, the principal effects of
which, after the lapse of countless centuries,
are at this day perfectly discernible."
In geology this disturllance is known as
a fault, etc. The precious and semiprecious
stones, fossils, arrow-heads, etc.,
hereinafter named, were found all along
the line of this fault, including an area of
about twenty acres of land, and nowhere
else on his property, nor elsewhere in this
country known to him, have any discoveries
of this kind been made.
The following   named  precious and
semi-precios stones he has row in his
private cabinet:  Rock crystal, amethyst,
blue quartz  (sometimes   called  water
sapphire), ferruginous quartz, prase, jasper
of various kinds, Egyptian jasper, chalcedony,
chrysoprase, plasma, carnelian, avanturine,
onyx fingernail, agates (a large
variety of beautiful gems), sard or agate
quartz. beryl or aquamarine (this stone
and the emerald are of the sane chemical
composition, differing  only in color),
topazes (all very small), silicified wood,
Lydian stone, with numerous other specimens
of the chalcedony variety of quartz,
and quite a number of other stones, some
'of which have entirely different characteristics
from the above, whose proper classification
he has been unable, for want of
time, to determine. About 150 specimens

81