name shall be added to those which stand for the highest achievement 

 in ceramics, or the art of clay working. As soon as a greater number 

 of individuals among our people become interested in the properties 

 and possibilities of our native clay bodies, development is sure to fol- 

 low. Clay working is neither so difficult nor so expensive but that in 

 some cases objects of art have been molded in the home and burnt in 

 private kilns. On the other hand success is attained only at the price 

 of diligent study and persistent effort. It is with the hope that the dis- 

 semination of knowledge concerning the useful properties of clay will 

 lead to a w T ider popular interest in their study and use, that this article 

 is written. 



FORMATION OF CLAYS. 



Clay may be denned as an earthy deposit, found on or below the 

 surface, which when finely ground and mixed with water forms a mold- 

 able or plastic mass and can be burned to a hard, stonelike substance 

 after drying. The original crust of the earth was of course formed of 

 the rocks w r hich crystallized from a molten magma. These crystalline 

 rocks of igneous origin underwent gradual crumbling and decay caused 

 by the varied actions of the elements. It is probable that only students 

 of rock structure realize how steadily and continually rocks are under- 

 going secondary changes ,and decay. " Enduring as the rocks" is an 

 expression of merely relative truth. When rocks crumble the resulting 

 material may be found either heaped up in place, in which case they 

 are known as residual deposits, or the fine material may have been 

 picked up in suspension by moving waters, sifted out and deposited at 

 some remote place in beds or layers forming sedimentary deposits. 

 These deposits once formed have been, in some cases, acted on by 

 tremendous forces in the course of the great geologic periods. Folded 

 and buried under great crumplings of the earth's crust they have been 

 to varying degrees subjected to heat and pressure and have thus become 

 metamorphosed. Consolidated into sedimentary rocks and shales they 

 become again subject to decay. Changed and disintegrated, now acted 

 on by percolating waters, in which it is known that many of these 

 crystalline minerals are distinctly soluble, or again subjected to acid or 

 alkaline solutions, as the case may be, it is little wonder that every 

 useful earthy deposit found by man on the surface of the earth is to a 

 certain degree unique in its properties, requiring special study and 

 treatment in order to insure the highest degree of success in its work- 

 ing. Clays of nearly the same chemical composition and of similar 

 physical texture, owing to some slight modification will 3 T ield entirely 

 dissimilar results in mixing, molding, and firing. Given in some par- 

 ticular locality a deposit which under certain treatment yields a 

 definite and constant result to man's handicraft, it is doubtful whether, 

 if the deposit becomes exhausted, exactly similar results could be pro- 



