208 THE CLAY'S OF ARKANSAS. 
accompanying section (fig. 17), by Professor Purdue, shows the general 
character of the geology and the relation to each other of the shales 
and sandstones of the region. There are long parallel ridges of sand- 
stone with shale valleys between. The shales are at some places 
so interbedded with sandstones that they are hardly available for 
manufacturing purposes on a large scale, but for the most part they 
form beds of enormous thickness and of a composition suitable for 
making paving bricks, sewer pipe, and fire-clay goods. Just north 
of Mansfield the heavily shaded area in the section represents the 
clay shales used by the Choctaw Pressed Brick and Terra Cotta 
Company. 
One-half mile south of the town an almost unbroken ridge, known 
as Coops Ridge, incloses a small circular valley. The ridge is made 
up of sandstones that dip southward on the south side and north- 
ward on the north side; in other words, Coops Ridge surrounds a 
small anticlinal valley, called Coops Prairie. Inside of this valley 
are thick beds of clay shales that are probably available for the manu- 
facture of various kinds of clay goods. The valley between Coops 
Ridge and the town of Mansfield is more than a quarter of a mile 
Jt^^a 
Fig. 17.— North-south section showing structure and relative positions of the shales and sandstones 
from Coops Ridge to Salem, sh, Shale; ss, sandstone. 
wide and is cut in shales that extend westward to Cherokee Prairie 
and then swing back eastward around the south side of Coops Ridge 
and form the broad, open valley that lies about the village of Fuller, 
in Scott County, and extends a mile east of it, and then swing west- 
ward again and around to Mansfield. North of Black Jack Ridge 
is another shale valley not more than a quarter of a mile wide that 
extends from James Fork, 4^ miles west of Mansfield, northeastward 
past Mansfield 4 miles, and swings westward past the town of Dayton, 
which stands in the shale valley. Another shale valley parallel in 
the main with the last one mentioned begins a mile south of Liver- 
pool post-office and runs northeastward parallel to and just south of 
Nigger Ridge, crossing Cherokee Creek a mile south of the town of 
Huntington, and about 2\ miles farther east it swings northward and 
then westward about 4 miles, when it turns due northward and 
extends for 5 miles or more along the east base of Devils Backbone 
Ridge. This same bed of shale can be traced for many miles along 
the base of this ridge past Burnsville post-office into the eastern edge 
of Sebastian County. 
