464  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,  1906,  PART    I. 
about  three-fourths  of  a  mile  east  of  White  Kiver  and  the  same  dis- 
tance from  the  White  River  branch  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  Railway. 
A  spur  extends  from  the  main  line  up  Lafferty  Creek,  past  the  quarry, 
and  on  to  the  old  workings,  which  are  about  a  mile  to  the  northeast,  on 
East  Lafferty  Creek.  Although  this  is  the  only  locality  at  which  the 
deposits  have  been  developed,  they  have  a  wide  cast -west  extent, 
reaching  from  the  town  of  Hickory  Valley,  10  miles  northeast  of  Bates- 
ville,  westward  at  least  as  far  as  the  town  of  St.  Joe,  in  Searcy  County, 
a  distance  of  more  than  SO  miles  in  a  direct  line.  This  statement 
must  not  be  taken  to  mean  that  phosphate  rock  outcrops  throughout 
the  whole  of  this  distance  or  that  all  the  deposits  found  are  sufficiently 
large  or  of  high  enough  grade  to  work  with  profit.  It  means  that  a 
phosphate  bed,  which  is  practically  horizontal,  outcrops  in  a  winding 
line  on  the  hillsides  and  in  other  places  between  the  points  mentioned. 
A  phosphatic  horizon  can  be  traced  westward  to  the  western  border 
of  the  State,  but  at  no  point  west  of  St.  doe  have  phosphate  rocks,  in 
considerable  amount,  attracted  the  attention  of  geologists.  Thin 
beds  of  phosphatic  sandstone  are  found  in  the  Devonian  shales  in  the 
western  pari  of  Carroll  County,  on  War  Eagle  Creek.  While  it  is  cer- 
tain that  prospecting  for  workable  deposits  would  be  useless  through- 
out most  of  the  distance  over  which  the  phosphate  rock  outcrops,  it 
can  confidently  be  expected  that  minable  deposits  other  than  those 
now  know!)  will  he  discovered,  especially  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
field. 
Topography  of  th  area. — The  area  near  the  developed  deposits  is 
much  dissected  by  si  reams.  The  main  line  of  drainage  is  White  River, 
which  here  stands  aboui  250  feel  above  sen  level.  Above  the  river  on 
both  >ide>  ait1  steep-sloping  hills  or  almosl  perpendicular  bhiiTs.  The 
tributaries  of  White  River  Mow  southward  in  valleys  that  lie  from  200 
to  lot)  feet  below  the  hills  on  both  sides.  Lafferty  Creek,  on  which 
the  developed  deposits  are  located,  (lows  in  a  valley  that  is  400  feet 
deep. 
Discovert/  (iik/  Jiistory. — The  following  account  of  the  discovery  of 
the  phosphate  deposits  of  northern  Arkansas  has  been  furnished  the 
writer  by  Dr.  J.  C.  Branner,  ex-State  geologist  of  Arkansas: 
The  firsl  mention  of  the  phosphate  deposits  of  Arkansas  was  made  by  Owen,  who 
spo"ke  of  the  bed  at  St.  Joe  a-  a  vein  of  ore  containing  iron  ami  manganese  * '.')."  ( ►wen, 
however,  did  not  recognize  the  material  as  phosphate  rock.  The  next  mention  was 
i  mule  by  Penrose  in  his  manganese  report  .'>  He  also  failed  to  determine  the  true  nature 
of  the  rock,  ami  Doctor  Wolff,  of  Harvard,  wae  disposed  to  think  it  volcanic  tuff. 
Hopkins  noted  the  beds  a1  several  places,  ami  mentions  them  in  his  marble  report, c 
'i  Owen,  David  Dale,  First  Report  of  a  Geological  Reconnaissance  of  the  North'- rn  Counties  of  Arkan- 
sas, made  during  the  Years  L857  and  1858,  p.  79. 
b  Penrose,  R.  A.  F.,  Manganese;  its  uses,  ores  and  deposits:  Ann.  Kept.  Geol.  Survey  Arkansas  for 
1800,  vol.  1,  pp.  126-127. 
(•Hopkins,  T.  C,  Marbles  and  other  limestones:  Ann.  Kept.  Geol.  Survey  Arkansas  for  1890,  vol.  4, 
pp.  212-213. 
