72 GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF ALABAMA CLAYS. 



outside world, the occurrence of porcelain clay in the 

 county will become a matter of economic importauce. 



These pegmatite veins with their mica and kaoli- 

 nite, are very numerous in the upper half of Randolph 

 county, and) also in the adjacent parts of Cleburne and 

 Clay, and test pits have been sunk in hundreds of 

 places to show up both the kaolinite and the mica. Dr. 

 Caldwell of the Elyton Land Company, had this kao- 

 linite- thoroughly tested both as to its suitability for. 

 the manufacture of porcelain ware and as to its re- 

 fractory character. The pottery ware made from it 

 came in competition with the best pottery wares in 

 America and took a prize at the Art Institute Fair 

 in Philadelphia, in December, 1890. Brick made from 

 it also was subjected to the "highest temperature of 

 the furance and was declared practically infusible. 

 These deposits lie near Milnei, Pinetucky, Micaville, 

 in Randolph, and near Stone Hill, Mr. Jas. Denman's 

 and other places in Cleburne. The same belt extends 

 southwestward through Clay and Coosa into Chilton, 

 and has been tested at various places along this line. 



In this region of the crystalline rocks, one may 

 everywhere observe the gradual (transition from the 

 solid rock through decayed scliists into complete soil, 

 which is generally a clayey loam, more or less stain- 

 ed wih iron. A reddish clay is thus seen to be a 

 part of the residual matters left by the general decay 

 of (the rocks of this section, but this clay is, as a rule, 

 so much mixed with quartz, mica, fragments of un- 

 decomposed rock, that it can serve very seldom for 

 anything more than material for the manufacture 

 of building brick. Residual clays of this character 

 are of universal occurrence throughout ithe region of 

 our crystalline rocks. 



It is not difficult to understand how under certain 



