PIKE COUNTY. 147 
At the big spring 2 miles north of Helena, on the east side of the 
ridge, 80 feet of variegated sands, clays, and lignitic clays are exposed 
in the deep ravine just north of the spring. The iron-colored pebbles 
and overlying orange-colored loam, seen at the foot of the bluff on 
Cherry street in Helena, comes above the 80-foot section of variegated 
sands and clays at this spring. The top of the bluff is covered with 
loess. 
Along the western edge ot Crowleys Ridge in this county there is 
an apparent terrace from one-half to 3 miles wide. It has a uniform 
elevation 20 to 30 feet higher than the plain to the west. 
A section in a gulley 1^ miles east of Southland shows strata of the 
character found in the terrace west of the main ridge. 
Section of terrace 1\ miles east of Southland. 
Feet. 
Stratified dark clayey loam 4 
Thin, laminated, argillaceous sand, with small, irregular concretions 
of iron oxide 4 
Yellow argillaceous sand 2 
CLAY DEPOSITS AND INDUSTRY. 
The principal brick clays of Phillips County are the loess and 
rearranged loess found on the top and sides and at the foot of Crow- 
leys Ridge. Bricks could be made from the upper loam of the terrace 
along the west side of the ridge and also from the clays that form the 
surface of Pine and Hickory ridges. So far, however, the brick 
industry of the county is limited to the city of Helena. 
The plant of the Straub Brick Company is located on the south- 
west side of the town, at the foot of Crowleys Ridge. The capacity 
of the plant is 36,000 bricks a day. The bricks are made from the 
loess, which has been slightly reworked and mixed with the under- 
lying clays. It requires a greater amount of care to make good 
bricks from this clay than from ordinary clay. The loess is a very 
fine, silty, calcareous loam, lacking plasticity, and it is very easy to 
get too much water in the pug mill. It is found to be more profitable 
to make soft-mud brick in the summer, and dry-pressed brick in the 
fall and winter. 
The bricks are dried in the open air by the pallet and rack system. 
Most of them are burned in up-draft kilns. Only one down-draft kiln 
is used. 
PIKE COUNTY. 
GENERAL GEOLOGY. 
The geologic age and character of the deposits in the southern part 
of Pike County encourage the hope that valuable beds of kaolin exist 
there. These beds, however, must be sought within the Mesozoic 
area and not in the region of hard Paleozoic rocks to the north. 
