OF ARKANSAS. 31 
There is a stream called the St. Francis bayou, which runs from Mrs. 
Stott’s farm, nearly parallel with the Crowley ridge, which is not laid 
‘down on the maps of Arkansas. This stream empties into the St. Francis 
river in the northern part of St. Francis county. The traces of earth- 
cracks and sandblows are numerous, almost every where in the St. Francis 
bottom, especially near the Morell prairie; some of the earth-cracks are 
eight to ten feet wide and six to eight deep. Lignite has frequently been 
thrown out of these rents in the earth, showing that there must be a con- 
siderable area of that mineral not far from the surface, running through 
the St. Francis country. 
There is a peculiar soil of extraordinary fertility, occupying part of the 
St. Francis bottom, particularly in townships 8, 9,10 and 11, ranges 5 and 
6 east, known as the “black wax land,” which was formerly overflowed 
by the back water of the Mississippi, but is now partly in cultivation. 
This soil will produce from 50 to 75 bushels of corn to the acre. The soil 
of the Morell prairie is sandy, but is also good corn land, yielding 40 to 
50 bushels of corn to the acre, while the adjacent uplands of the Crowley 
ridge produce from 30 to 40 bushels. 
From the Narrows of the Crowley ridge to Bolivar and Harrisburg, the 
new county seat, the quaternary gravel is quite conspicuous on the higher 
grounds, and of a very coarse character; some pieces would weigh several 
pounds. On Spencer creek, some little sandstone is seen underlying the 
gravel and resting on sandy clay. 
At Hurricane creek, near Harrisburg, the Crowley ridge is about three 
miles wide. There are considerable cotton plantations in this part of 
Greene county, especially at B. Harris’ and Judge Hall’s, just at the edge 
of the L’Anguille and St. Francis bottoms. 
Some specimens of amber are said to have been found on Hurricane 
creek. As this is sometimes an accompaniment of lignite, which occurs 
on the waters of this creek, it is not improbable that such a mineral 
may have been found, but probably only in small, isolated, disseminated 
lumps. 
The material passed through, in sinking wells in the L’Anguille bottom, 
is usually 20 feet of yellow clay, underlaid by 30 to 40 feet of light-colored 
sand, a moderately soft water being generally obtained at 60 feet. 
Immediately at the foot of the ridge, water is often obtained at 12 feet, 
the water gradually getting deeper for one mile into the bottom, where it 
is, generally, the deepest seated. 
So far as I have yet been able to learn, no rotten limestone, green sand, 
or shell beds, referable to the cretaceous formation, have ever been reached, 
