OF ARKANSAS. 



205 



The principal growth of timber on the highland is largo white, black, 



and red oak*, mockcrnut hickory, (commonly called black hickory,) and a 

 few shell-bark hickories. On the alluvial lands of Cache river, are found, 

 in addition to the above, large poplar, black and sweet gums, and in the 

 sloughs, cypress. 



RANDOLPH COUNTY. 



The portion of Randolph county, east of Black river, is covered with 

 an alluvial deposit, elevated but a few feet above high water; and, with 

 the exception of a low ridge, which divides the waters of Cache from 

 those of Black river, it is much cut up by sloughs and lakes. Immedi- 

 ately on the west bank of Black river, at Pocahontas, magnesian lime- 

 stones of the lower silurian period are seen at the water's edge, and ex- 

 tend up into the highest ridges, where they are capped by black and 

 orange-colored sandstone and waterworn gravel of the quaternary 

 period. The country is generally broken, with hills from one to two hun- 

 dred and fifty feet in height, covered on their slopes with chert, which has 

 weathered out of the limestone. 



On the property of Mr. Samuel McLaire, one and a half miles from 

 Pocahontas, is a deposit of black ferruginous sandstone, exposed to the 

 thickness of (23) twenty-three feet, and forming the top of what is con- 

 sidered to be the highest ridge in the county. It is frequently fluted, and 

 resembles in its outward appearance and fracture, a rough variety of pig 

 iron.* At some localities this rock is of a dark orange-color, friable, and 

 readily decomposing into coarse-grained sand. In its lithological charac- 

 ter, it resembles very much the indurated and cemented portions of the 

 orange-sand formation of Mississippi and Alabama. Indeed it is so com- 

 plete a counterpart, that when specimens were exhibited to Dr. E. H. 

 Hilgard, Geologist of Mississippi, he at once recognized the identity with 

 those he had himself collected in the State of Mississippi. 



The place of this sandstone is probably in Greene county, below the 

 quaternary clay, which, however, I did not see in Randolph county; it 

 appears to rest immediately on the lower silurian rocks. 



The following approximate section exhibits the position of the rocks in 

 this county, extending from the bed of Black river to the waterworn qua- 

 ternary gravel on the tops of the highest ridges: 



*This is probably the locality referred to in mv instructions. 



