104 THE CLAYS OF ARKANSAS. 
without elasticity. It is infusible before the blowpipe, but when 
heated in the flame of a Bunsen burner it loses water and becomes 
brittle. Specimens of this kaolinite were sent to ceramic works to 
be tested practically, and the following report was made on the 
results by Homer Laughlin, of East Liverpool, Ohio: 
The sample of what you call kaolinite sent me was duly received and carefully 
examined and tested under fire. The mineral is neither kaolin nor kaolinite, but 
just what it should be called I am unable to say, never in all my experience having 
seen any mineral of its kind. Unlike kaolin, it will not dissolve in water. It burns 
a white color and becomes very vitreous and strong. It can not be finished with a 
smooth face or skin, but roughs up like a blotting pad. It is certainly a very inter- 
esting and curious mineral, but I can think of no use for it in ceramic manufacture 
unless it could, after careful experiments, be made into novel ornaments. 
Samples were also sent to Oliphant & Co., of the Delaware Pottery, 
at Trenton, N. J., but they were unable to say anything of its quality 
or market value. 
Although rectorite is not now known to have any practical com- 
mercial value, it is mentioned here as of scientific interest and of 
possible future importance." 
GRANT COUNTY. & 
Grant County is almost entirely within the area of the "Lignitic" 
(Tertiary). The surface is such as is characteristically found in the 
Tertiary area of this State, being a rolling surface, broken in the 
vicinity of the larger streams. The soils are sandy and thin on the 
uplands, while the higher ridges exhibit abundant novaculite gravels, 
at many places rudely stratified and everywhere small. 
The divides are in many places wide and flat, or filled with a series 
of broad depressions which constitute sandy " slashes." All support 
a heavy growth of large and fine pine. The bottom lands are charac- 
teristically wet and clayey. They support an abundant growth of 
large white oak, red oak, and gum, with scattered groves of holly. 
The general stratigraphy here given is the result of composite 
sections made up from well records and from sections in gullies and 
cuts made by streams. Near the mouths of the deeper ravines a 
sandy clay lies at the base of the hills. 
The members of the Eocene (Tertiary) form a considerable portion 
of the surface of this county. As is well known, these members are 
largely arenaceous, with an admixture of thin clays of varying colors. 
Commonly these clays are erratically distributed in the form of 
small lenticular pockets. The pockets are disposed without observ- 
able vertical order, but appear to be most common near the top of 
the series. Their color is nearly everywhere drab to white, but at 
a A mineralogical description of rectorite was published by R. N. Brackett and J. F. Williams in Am. 
Jour. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 42, 1891, pp. 16-21. 
b The notes on Grant County were taken chiefly by R. E. Call and C E. Siebenthal. 
