Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the year 1852 / by Randolph B. Marcy ; assisted by George B. McClellan. Page: 180 of 368
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164
APPENDIX D.-GEOLOGY.
of chalcedony, agate, and jasper. No rock of any description was
observed at a greater distance than a few feet from the base of the
mountains. Soil thick and fertile; subsoil loamy.
May 30.-The mountains did not differ materially in appearance or
structure from those before observed; at a distance, a few of them
appeared to present a columnar structure; but upon a nearer approach
this was found to be owing to divisional plains, or master-joints, with
weather-worn and rounded edges. I observed to-day a number of clear
springs; the water of several being tasted was found to be alkaline.
In the prairie we observed several circular elevations, varying from
one hundred to one hundred and thirty yards in diameter, and ascending
in some places to the height of three or four hundred feet above the
general level. Upon examination, their mineralogical composition was
found to be the same as that of the neighboring mountains. Within a
few feet of one of these, a small ravine exposed to view a horizontal
stratum of soft ferruginous sandstone. Soil and subsoil the same as on
yesterday.
May 31.-The mountains presented the same general appearance as
on yesterday. From their surface were exhibited a large number of
veins, varying in thickness from an inch to a foot and a half, and composed
of greenstone, quartz, and hornblende. The prairie was here and
there dotted with a number of conoidal elevations, varying in height
from twenty to one hundred feet. In composition they agreed in every
respect with the neighboring mountains, with which in origin they
appeared to be cotemporaneous. From the drift I collected specimens
of fossil-wood. The water of springs issuing from the mountains I
found, upon test, to be alkaline.
June 1.-Red river as observed to-day runs between low bluff blanks,
composed of red clay. Its bed was in some places thickly strewn with
large detached masses of granite, all presenting a highly water-worn
appearance, and seeming to have been derived from a neighboring
mountain. Soil and subsoil the same as before.
June 2.-Immediately upon leaving the Witchita mountains, we lost
all traces of drift and other igneous rocks. Red river as observed to day
runs between high bluff banks, composed of horizontal layers of red,
yellow, and blue clay, and finely laminated sandstone; the latter being
interstratified with thin seams of saccharoid gypsum. (see Section No. 4.)
About a mile from the river we observed two conical hills-one fifty
and the other eighty feet in height-composed of horizontal layers of
sandstone, interstratified with thin seams of gypsum. From them I
obtained specimens of selenite. Soil and subsoil loamy.
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Marcy, Randolph Barnes. Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the year 1852 / by Randolph B. Marcy ; assisted by George B. McClellan., book, 1854; Washington, DC. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6105/m1/180/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.