28 GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF MISSISSIPPI. 
The lignite in a compact, pure state is impervious to water and gives rise to numerous 
springs where it comes to the surface. The "descending waters carry more or less iron 
oxide in solution, and when the water is checked by the lignite bed the iron is precipitated, 
forming a thin roof on top of the lignite. It is often underlain and overlain by pure 
refractory clay, and where there is such an overlying bed the iron-charged waters are 
checked before reaching the lignite. 
The largest area where lignite has been found is in southeastern Lafayette and north- 
west ci'ii Calhoun counties. It occurs here in workable veins, reaching a maximum thick- 
ness of 6 feet. 
A bed 28 inches thick occurs on A. I). Lancaster's place, in sec. 33, T. 9 S., R. 2 W. It 
outcrops in a deep ravine about 50 feet above Yocona Creek. Immediately above the lignite 
is a brown clayey micaceous sand, 10 inches thick, teeming with fossil leaves resembling 
oak and a narrow lanceolate leaf or iced. A very compact black lignite, 5 feet thick, out- 
crops at the foot of a high hill on J. A. Head's land, in sec. 11, T. 11 S., R. 2 W. A second 
seam is reported to ha\ e been si ruck 15 feet below the upper layer. The lower bed is thin- 
ner than the upper and contains mote iron pyrite. The upper bed marks the outcrop of 
numerous bold springs over a large area in this vicinity. A well at Paris, in sec. 32, T. 10S., 
K. 2 W., is reported to have passed through 18 feel of surface clay and sand, (i feet of lignite, 
and 3 feet of greensand in which a stream of water was found. More or less lignite occurs 
along the bluff skirting the Yazoo delta in Panola and Yalobusha counties. Here it is 
associated with the dark-brown clays at the top of the Wilcox. 
A sample of lignite was collected from a bed nearDe Kalb, Kemper County, llilgard 
and others report lignite from near Marion, Lauderdale County, and from localities in 
Choctaw, Yalobusha, and Tippah counties. 
In the upper portion of t he Wilcox there are 200 to 2,50 feet of dark-brown or chocolate- 
colored clay. It is highly laminated and often cross-bedded. In places it contains more 
or less greensand and often variegated siliceous sands. The surface outcrop is most char- 
acteristically developed on hillsides along Yalobusha River in Grenada County, and it is 
found in wells in the same area. The hills in the vicinity of Grenada expose from 100 to 
150 feet of the Wilcox days War the top of the hills the clay is often of a light-gray to 
bluish color, becoming darker near the base. More or less green, yellow, and gray sand is 
found alternating with the lighter colored clays. The darker clays in the river bank con 
tain but little sand. 
The following sect ion is from the hill just west of Grenada: 
Section of Wilco.r formation in .-7 offhtnada. 
4. Yellow^ loam and Lafayette capping top of hill. Feet. 
3. Impure laminated gray clay 50 
2. Greensands interbedded with thin layers of clay .")() 
1. Darker colored laminated clays, the lower I.") feel being the dark-blue, highly cross-bedded, 
shaly clay seen in the bank of the river. It is almost entirely free from sand SO 
Four miles west of Grenada the hard quartzite of the Tallahatta buhrstone occurs near 
the crest of the hills. How much, t herefore, of these clays, if any, belongs to the Claiborne 
has not been determined. 
Still farther north, along the western edge of the Wilcox hills in Panola County, the same 
brown clays occur associated with more or less lignite. They can be traced in the wells 
and outcrops along the western edge of the Wilcox to Memphis, where 250 feet or more of 
dark, compact "soapstone" or clay is reported. 
CLAIBORNE GROUP. 
The Claiborne is divisible on lithologic grounds into two distinct formations; the lower of 
these is the Tallahatta buhrstone or " siliceous Claiborne," and the upper includes the 
Lisbon beds or " calcareous Claiborne." 
