DEPARTMENT OF THE INTEKIOB BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 3STo. 45 WASHINGTON OOTEENMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1S87 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY J. W. POTVELL, DIEECTOE THE PRESENT CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE GEOLOGY OF TEXAS P.Y ROBERT T. HILL WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1887 CONTENTS. Page. Prefatory note.............................................................. 7 I. HISTORIC STATEMENT OF GEOLOGIC INVESTIGATION, Knowledge at the beginning of this century ................................. 9 Anglo-American adventurers and colonists................................... 10 Philip Nolan............................................................ H American colonization period ........................ ................... 11 European investigators ...................................................... 12 William Kennedy....................................................... 13 G. A. Scherpf...... ...................................................... 14 Prince Carl Solms-Braunfols.. ......................................... 14 Victor Bracht........................................................... 15 Ferdinand Koemer ...................................'................... 15 United States military reconnaissances and explorations ..................... 18 Reconnaissances ........................................................ 21 Explorations ........................................................... 22 Exploration of the Red River of Lbuisiana....'...................... 23 United States and Mexican boundary survey......................... 24 Pacific Railroad surveys ............................................ 25 Thirty-fifth parallel survey...... ................................ 25 Thirty-second parallel survey ................................... 26 Artesian well experiment ........................................... 27 Geologic surveys conducted by the State .................................... 27 The Texas land office ..............................!^.................... 29 First geological survey (Shumard) ....................................... 29 Organization and equipment................................... ...... 30 Field labors ......................................................... 30 Methods of survey .................................................. 31 Maps...........----........................ ....................... 32 Operations of 1860...........'..................... .................. 32 Official results ...................................................... 36 Indirect results ....................................... .............. 36 Expense............................................................ 37 Second geological survey (Glenn-Buckley)............................... 35 Operations of 1874 .................................................. 40 Operations of 1875 ...............................'.................... 41 Recent miscellaneous'investigations ......................................... 42 Individual contributors ................................................. 42 Work of the United States Geological Survey............................ 47 Succession of scientific explorations ......................................... 48 II. SUMMARY OF RESULTS. Topography ................................................................ 49 Classification of topography of Texas ................................... 52 Chart illustrating progressive classification of topographic features....... 53 (383) 5 6 CONTENTS. Page. Historic geology aud stratigraphy ........................................... 53 Table of geologic formations of Texas, with authorities.................. 54 So-called Archean and earlier Paleozoic.................................. 55 Carboniferous system ................................................... 57 Central Carboniferous area.......................................... 58 Trans-Pecos Carboniferous area ......'............................... 59 General conclusions respecting the Texas Carboniferous....:......... 62 So-called Permian or Permo-Carboniferous................................ 62 Trans-Pecos region of Shumard ..................................... 63 Permian of Cope and his assistants .................................. 65 Jura-Trias or gypsum strata............................................. 69 So-called Jurassic....................................................... 70 Cretaceous....--........................................................ 71 So-called Laraniie ...... ................................................ 84 Tertiary ................................................................ 84 Quaternary and other post-Tertiary strata ............................... 86 Geological deductions.................................................... 87 General conclusions ......................................................... 88 (384) PREFATORY NOTE. Geologic investigation in Texas has been fragmentary and unsatis­ factory for many reasons: hostile Indians till recently ravaged the western half of the State; the civil war suspended the work of a com­ prehensive geological survey inaugurated under the State legislation of 1858, and that survey resuscitated and a later organization both came to naught. The U. S. Geological Survey has extended its operations, into the State too recently to increase greatly the published knowledge of the geology of Texas. To study intelligently the geology of this State it is important that a digest of such material as has been already published should be made. The present bulletin comprises an historical statement of such scientific work as has added to available knowledge of the topography and the paleontology as well as the geology of the State, but it is not intended to include unpublished knowledge gained by my residence and study in the State, except as that knowledge modifies .comments on conclu­ sions already in print. Other publications will embody such matter in due time. The present work does not extend the record beyond Jan­ uary 1,1886. (385) 7 PRESENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE GEOLOGY OF .TEXAS. BY EGBERT T. HILL. I, HISTORICAL STATEMENT RESPECTING GEOLOGIC INVESTIGATION, KNOWLEDGE AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS CENTURY. Geology as a distinct science is so recent that we should not expect to find specific information upon that subject in early records;-but geo. logic facts worthy of our attention are sometimes discernible in the de­ scriptions of local geography and natural histoiy given by intelligent travelers. The most complete and trustworthy compilation of the early Spanish, French, and Mexican authorities, with other historical data, is to be found in a work prepared by William Kennedy,1 which is prefer­ able to many later histories because of the scholarly and unprejudiced manner in which it was written. The knowledge derived from previous authorities was embodied in the works of Baron Friedrich Heiurich Alexander von Huinboldt, who visited Spanish America in the employ of Spain in the years 1799-1804, collecting all available information. Although his studies extended into this century, his writings may justly be considered a correct statement of the geologic and geographic knowledge at the opening of the century. He first attempted to repre­ sent the principal features of the region on a map which accompanies the Voyage au regions dquinoctiales du Nouveau Continent, par A. de Huni- boldt et A. Bonpland. His physical observations upon the mountains and plains, his numerous measurements of the region of the Upper Eio Grande, and his formulation of meteorologic laws concerning that re­ gion were all valuable, though indirect, contributions to our knowledge of Texas, which it seems he did not visit personally. A glance at his map is sufficient to show that the conception he possessed of this region, although the best of his time, was vague and indefinite. The sources and the courses of the rivers are incorrectly delineated. Streams having their sources in the eastern portion of the plains are represented as originating in lakes, an error probably arising from the fact that in the vicinity of San Antonio de Bexar, which at that time was the nucleus of Spanish settlement, the water courses arise from outbursting springs which usually expand into extensive pools of water. These phenomena 1 Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas. By William Kennedy, esq. In two volumes. London, 1841. 8°. (387) 9 10 PRESENT KNOWLEDGE OP GEOLOGY OP TEXAS. fBULL.45. are purely local, however, and the streams of Texas as a general rule are but the seaward continuation of long arroyos usually dry in the be­ ginning of their courses.1 The latitude and the longitude of all interior places are incorrectly given by many degrees. The delineation of the old Spanish roads across Texas is also a feature of Baron von Humboldt's map indirectly bearing upon the geographic and geologic knowledge of the last century, for they indicate the extent of the country that came under the observation of the travelers of that time. They also indicate that the Spanish inhabitants were familiar with some of the results of one of the characteristic geologic features of Texas, for a road leads to the Paleozoic region of the San Saba, where it is certain that extensive explorations for minerals and some mining operations were conducted by them.2 ANGLO-AMERICAN ADVENTURERS AND COLONISTS. The general exclusion of foreigners from the region while it was a province of the viceroyalty of New Spain, at the close of the last and in the beginning of