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Potash Salts in Texas.--Samples of salts recently sent from western Texas to the laboratories of the United States Geological Survey, at Washington, D. C., and of the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology and Technology at Austin, Texas, contain percentages of potash that suggest at least the richness of the potash deposits of Alsace and Germany. The samples were obtained from two borings about eight), miles apart, sunk by oil companies in the "Red Beds " region of Texas, where salt beds, red shales, gypsum, and other materials are associated in strata of nearly the same geologic age and general character as the potash-bearing beds of western Europe. The thickness of the potash-bearing beds in Texas represented by these samples is unknown, however, and the questions remain to be determined whether the deposit is thick enough to furnish potash in as great amount and of as high a grade as those in Europe, or whether it is of scientific interest only and mainly important as showing that potash-rich salts were actually deposited in this region, and that other borings in areas where similar beds occur may discover commercial deposits.
The problem of recognizing the presence of a thin bed of potash salt, of determining its thickness, and of identifying its precise position in the stratigraphic column is rather difficult, however, on account of the adverse conditions of observation, the methods of drilling, and sometimes the indifference of the driller. Among the samples recently examined was one from the Bryant well, in Midland Count)', Texas, which, as shown by a rough field test, is very rich in potash. Subsequent accurate deterruination in the laboratories of the Texas State University and of the Geological Survey in Washington showed that this sample which was saved by the driller from cuttings taken at depths between 24o 5 and 2525 feet contained about 9 per cent. of potash (K~O). The sample consisted of red salt, including polyhalite, white salt, crushed red shale, and mud, so that the fragments of red salt ground up in the cuttings probably represent a layer that is richer in potash even than the sample as a whole.
A small piece of red salt brought out from a depth of about 1864 feet in the Burns No. I well of the La Mesa Oil Company, which is about eighty miles from the Bryant well, contained about ~o per cent. of .potash (K20).
Adequate information as to even the probable thickness of the bed represented by the samples of potash salt is lacking for both these wells. The drill records of the La Mesa well indicate that the bed struck at a depth of 1864 feet may not be more than a ~39
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