OF ARKANSAS. ao 
limestone is an impure, cherty member, about twenty-five feet thick. 
This succession continues nearly to Salem, and the country is strewed 
with the reddish and variegated chert, derived from these formations. 
Half a mile north of Salem, is an isolated, comical hill, called the 
“Pilot Knob.” A measurment made with the aneroid barometer, gave 
its height four hundred and forty-five (445) feet above the town of Salem. 
The summit is capped with a reddish, quartzose sandstone, and disinte- 
grated fragments of the same are strewed on the sides of the “Knob;” 
thus entirely concealing from view any other rocks which may exist at the 
base. This is a conspicuous knob that may be seen from a distance of 
many miles; hence it served, in early times, to direct the course of the 
pioneers. 
Four miles west of Salem, there is a considerable bed of hydrated 
brown oxide of iron, in connection with an impure siliceous ore, laying 
exposed on a ridge, about one hundred feet above the general drainage 
of the country. 
The geological position of this ore is probably the same as that which 
has been before noted in Lawrence county. 
Both copper pyrites and galena, have been found in small quantities in 
the magnesian limestones, in the southern and western part of the 
county. 
Between Salem and Bennett’s bayou, the substratum is a white earthy 
limestone, resembling the “white rock” (0) of the Independence county 
section, alternating with a greenish, marly shale, which weathers easily 
and forms broad grassy valleys between the hills destitute of timber. 
Bennett’s bayou, along which is a rich agricultural district, cuts its way 
principally through this stratum. 
In the western part of this county, on the North fork of White river, 
there are seen, in the base of the hills, ninety feet of irregularly bedded, 
impure, cherty limestone; the chert is very brittle, and has a tendency to 
break into cubes. This is overlaid by one hundred and eighteen feet of 
cherty limestone, alternating with a grayish-buff, siliceous rock. 
In the southern part of the county, on Piney creek, the saccharoidal 
sandstone (c) of the Independence county section, forms the tops of the 
ridges, and is covered with a heavy growth of yellow pine. 
Agriculture. 
The valleys of the numerous streams, watering this county, afford a 
rich fertile soil, well adapted for cultivation; and that forming the small 
grassy valleys, derived from the decomposition of the “ white rock” and 
