58 GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF MISSISSIPPI. 
Poorhouse clay. — Clay occurs in a large branch on the public road in front of the poor- 
house in sec. 26, T. 3 S., R. 3 W., Marshall County. The Lafayette is present on the hillside 
and has washed down to and overlies the cla}? - bed. The clay occurs in a large lens, with a 
thickness of 10 feet exposed. The entire thickness has not been determined, as it is unde- 
veloped. This clay has been tested by A. Herr, manager of the Holly Springs Stoneware 
and Fire-Brick Company, and he found it to be an excellent clay for making stoneware. It 
is of a leaden-gray color when damp and burns to a rich cream or white. The following is 
an analysis of the Poorhouse clay: 
Analysis of Poorhouse day, Marshall County. 
[By W. F. Hand, State chemist.] 
Silica (Si0 2 ) 61.31 
Alumina (A1 2 3 ) 24. 44 
Ferric oxide (Fe 2 3 ) 2. 77 
Lime (CaO) 57 
Magnesia (MgO) 1 29 
Sulphur trioxide (S0 3 ) 23 
Moisture 1. 78 
Loss on ignition 8. 11 
99.50 
McDowell clay. — In the Illinois Central Railroad cut , one-half mile south of Mahon station, 
in sec. 25, T. 3S., R. 3W., occurs a highly siliceous, lean, nonplastic clay containing small 
particles of mica, several feet below the base of the Lafayette. This clay burns to a light- 
cream color. 
The following section shows the relation of the clay to the stratified Wilcox and the over- 
lying Lafayette and surface loam: 
Section in Illinois Central Railroad cut one-half mile south of Mahon station. 
Feet. 
4. Yellow (Columbia) loess loam 8 
3. Lafayette, unstratified 'l\ 
2. I rrogularly bedded yellow and white sharp-grained sand 10 
1. Red coarse-grained sand with thin bands of ferruginous sandstone. This bed is more irregu- 
larly bedded than the one above and the sand grains are much larger. The clay occurs in this 
bed of coarse sand in a long lenticular mass, which grades into a clayey sand. Thickness of 
the clay, 10 feet 15 
The following is an analysis of the McDowell clay: 
Analysis of McDowell clay, Marshall County. 
[By W. F. Hand, State chemist.] 
Silica (Si0 2 ) 77. 64 
Alumina (A1 2 3 ) 12. 33 
Ferric oxide (Fe 2 3 ) 3. 10 
Lime (CaO) 51 
Magnesia (MgO) VI 
Sulphur trioxide (S0 3 ) 54 
Moisture 44 
Loss on ignition 4. 65 
99.33 
A few hundred yards south of the above-mentioned clay a more plastic clay outcrops on 
each side of the railroad track. It has a bluish tinge when fresh and damp and burns to a 
very light cream color, almost white. No analysis of this clay has been made. 
Font clay. — Highly colored white, pink, and gray clays, many of them free from sand, are 
present in numerous gullies and along the streams in sec. 9, T. 3 S., R. 3 W., on the farm of 
Ernest Fant. They occur in lenticular masses embedded in the sand. In sonic places (he 
Lafayette rests directly on the clay, in others the clay is entirely in the highly stratilied 
variegated sands. The following is an analysis of the Fant clay: 
