Indian Names

[David L. White]

> My "ancestral" home (remembering that, in America, "ancestral" is only 100
> years or so) is in Sulphur Springs, Texas.  The entire surface of the ground
> above the river bottoms, which were sandy, was red clay.  Bright brick red
> and as slick as a sheet of ice when it was wet.  It's the most distinctive
> soil I've ever encountered anywhere, both in color and in general
> characteristics.  Perhaps it's not so much an issue of the extent of surface
> red clay in Texas, but its truly distinctive visibility and wet properties
> that make it memorable.

> John E. McLaughlin, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor, English
> Utah State University

            Well, I have seen soil maps of Texas, which appear to show
bewildering and difficult to describe diversity more than anything else.
And which do not necessarily mention color.  Maybe a field trip to the Map
Room is in order.  But I am lazy.  In any event, there is certainly a lot of
non-red soil around, and I find it difficult to imagine that the proposition
"The soil of Texas is (generally or universally) red" is true.

Dr. David L. White