A Pictorial History of Texas, From the Earliest Visits of European Adventurers, to A.D. 1879. Page: 33 of 859

TABLE LANDS AND MOUNTAINS.

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done by the use of such implements, propelled by horse or
ox-power.
Nearthe south line of Montague and Clay counties
commence the "mountains," which though not so " stuck
up " as their distant.relations, the Alleghany, Blue Ridge,
Rocky Mountains, etc., which hold their heads much
higher, are still fully entitled to the appellation of mountains;
as, though only moderate hills in point of altitude,
they are mountains in character, with rocky precipices
and ledges and spurs, and abounding in the necessary number
of wild beasts and rattlesnakes. Many of these
mountains are isolated mounds or cones, either perfect or
truncated, rising from a base of table land, on which, in
many places, travel by wagons is easy through the entire
range to the level prairie on the other side. Some of these
hills and ridges are covered with timber, while others are
bald and bare. This range is from thirty to sixty miles
wide, and extends southwardly to near San Antonio, the
cities of Austin and New-Braunfels being on its eastern
border; and the rivers of San Marcos, Guadalupe and
San Antonio break out from its base. But this is out of
our present latitude. Between these mountain ridges are
many valleys of great fertility and beauty, some of them
large enough for farms of 640 acres, arable land, but
most of them smaller. Much of the prairie adjacent
to this region is covered with stones, so as to render it
unfit for cultivation, but furnishes material for building
and fencing, which, in the absence of good timber, will
be much used as the country is settled. These mountains,
further south, are covered with cedar in many places,
which is the most valuable fencing timber known. This
mountain country forms the western line of settlement
along its whole extent.
II. EAST TEXAS includes about twenty counties, lying