OF ARKANSAS. 29 



The angle of dip of the sandstone is somewhat irregular, varying from 

 10 cleg, to 12 <log., in the direction a little east of north, the bearing being 

 nearly coincident with the direction of the Crowley ridge — i.e.: north-east 

 and south-west. 



These profusions of quartzose sandstone can be traced for 3 miles in a 

 south-west direction. At W. Lane's, the quaternary deposits on the west 

 side of the hard sandstone protrusion, are tilted at the rate of 12 feet in 

 20, — judging from the inclined beds passed through by him in digging his 

 well. 



These strata, passed through, were: 



Red, ferruginous, tenacious clay 20 feet. 



Gravel 5 " 



Ledges of sandstone ... 5 « 



Sand and clay 45 " 



The water of Lane's well was tested, qualitatively, and found to be 

 soft, containing only a trace of earthy carbonates, and slightly reddening 

 litmus paper from the presence of free carbonic acid. 



Though the protruding sandstone is, as we have said, very hard, still it 

 can be quarried without a great deal of difficulty in certain directions. It 

 will not stand fire, and, when heated and drenched with water, it crumbles 

 to sand; proving its semicrystalline structure. 



The color of this sandstone is mostly of a light grey or pale red tint; 

 occasionally brown. It is of so hard and quartzose a character that it 

 strikes fire at almost every blow of the hammer. 



One or more of the violent commotions to which this part of Arkansas 

 has been subject, evinced by the coarseness of ihe gravel beds, their 

 thickness, and their wide distribution, may have been cotemporaneous 

 with the elevation of this sandstone. 



On section 9, township 15 north, range 3 east, close to William Lane's 

 house, there is also a low range of quartzose sandstone, probably of the 

 same date; but this sandstone lies in juxtaposition on the south-west, with 

 a softer sandstone, containing impressions of plants, which is, no doubt, 

 an indurated portion of the quarternary sand, through which the older, 

 harder sandstone has protruded, and bursting it asunder, has entangled 

 portions of this newer sandstone in the crevices and rents, so that they 

 often appear as if of the same origin; but a close inspection of the litho- 

 logical character of the rock, together with the vegetable remains, will 

 generally serve to distinguish them. 



Overlying the hard vitreous sandstone, but only partially covering it at 

 this locality, there is also a peculiar, fine-textured, siliceous rock with ver- 

 micular or ramose-tabular perforations, either empty or partially filled 



