1897.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 253 



Historical Sketch of the Batesville Sandstone. 



1858. — During this year the following section of the strata in 

 Independence county, Arkansas, was published by E. T. Cox.* 



k. Waterworu quaternar}- gravel 10ft. 



j. Coarse ferruginous quaternary sandstone 15 " 



i. Conglomerate and millstone grit, with intercalated shale and schis- 

 tose sandstone 480 ' ' 



h. Black entrochital limestone 20 " 



g. Place of dark shale, usually under the black limestone 20?" 



/. Buft'-colored fossiliferous sandstone, with intercalated, dark shale; 



lower part thin-bedded and schistose 180 " 



e. Black bituminous shale 35 " 



d. Subcarboniferous or cavernous limestone, with intercalations of 

 sandstone and shale; containing large deposits of manganese, 



some iron and copper pyrites 400 " 



c. Massive saccaroidal sandstone 75 " 



b. Light-colored earthy-looking limestone, "white-rock" ? " 



a. Magnesiau limestone containing galena, blende, carbonate of zinc 



and some copper pyrites 40 " 



In this section the stratum/, is described as follows: "sand- 

 stone (/) is buff-colored and rather soft; usually in prismatic 

 blocks near the base, and contains casts of subcarboniferous 

 fossils belonging to tlie genera spirife?-, orthis, lingula, 'productus, 

 nucula and bellerophon, also fragments of trilobites.'" From the 

 localities given and the distribution of the beds, there can be no 

 doubt in referring the formation here described to the Batesville 

 sandstone of later investigators. The thickness of the formation 

 is said by Cox to var}^ from a few feet to 180 feet or more. 



1891. — During this year two reports mentioning the Batesville 

 sandstone were published by the Geological Survey of Arkansas, 

 this provisional name having been applied to the formation by 

 Dr. J. C. Branner, the State Geologist. 



In Dr. Penrose's | report the formation is described as "a 

 sandstone formation with lenticular beds of gray, black or brown 

 shale. * * * jt; consists of a brown or buff-colored, fine 

 grained sandstone, generally Boft, though sometimes hard. It 

 splits easily along the lines of bedding, in slabs varj'ing from a 

 few inches to three or four feet in thickness, and is extensively- 

 worked for structural purposes at Bartlett's quarry in Batesville. 

 The shales in the sandstone occur as lenticular deposits, often 

 ending very abruptly, though sometimes ti'aceable for several 



* First Report of a Geological Reconnoisance of the northern counties of Arkansas, 

 made finring the years 1857 and 1S58, by David Dale Owen, principal geologist, assisted 

 by William Elderhorst, chemical assistant, and Edward T. Cox, assistant geologist. 

 Little Rock, lS:i,s. Pp. 2K3-219. 



t Manganese : Its Uses, Ores and Deposits. Bv R. A. F. Penrose, Jr,, Ph.D., Ann 

 Rep. Geol. Surv. Ark. for 1890, Vol. I., Little Rock, IS'Jl, p. 139. 



