rain and transported by the brooks and rivers into lakes or the sea. In this state the fine particles are known as “mud.” They are deposited where the currents are checked and the water becomes very still. If temporarily laid down in other situations they are ultimately lifted again and removed. A little clay, stirred up with water in a glass vessel, takes hours to settle, and even after two or three days some remains in suspension; in fact, it has been suggested that in such cases the clay forms a sort of “colloidal solution” in the water. Traces of dissolved salts, such as common salt, gypsum or alum, greatly accelerate deposition. For these reasons the principal gathering places of fine pure clays are deep, still lakes, and the sea bottom at considerable distances from the shore. The coarser materials settle nearer the land, and the shallower portions of the sea floor are strewn with gravel and sand, except in occasional depressions and near the mouths of rivers where mud may gather. Farther out the great mud deposits begin, extending from 50 to 200 m. from the land, according to the amount of sediment brought in, and the rate at which the water deepens. A girdle of mud accumulations encircles all the continents. These sediments are fine and tenacious; their principal components, in addition to clay, being small grains of quartz, zircon, tourmaline, hornblende, felspar and iron compounds. Their typical colour is blackish-blue, owing to the abundance of sulphuretted hydrogen; when fresh they have a sulphurous odour, when weathered they are brown, as their iron is present as hydrous oxides (limonite, &c). These deposits are tenanted by numerous forms of marine life, and the sulphur they contain is derived from decomposing organic matter. Occasionally water-logged plant débris is mingled with the mud. In a few places a red colour prevails, the iron being mostly oxidized; elsewhere the muds are green owing to abundant glauconite. Traced landwards the muds become more sandy, while on their outer margins they grade into the abysmal deposits, such as the globigerina ooze (see Ocean and Oceanography). Near volcanoes they contain many volcanic minerals, and around coral islands they are often in large part calcareous.
Microscopic sections of some of the more coherent clays and shales may be prepared by saturating them with Canada balsam by long boiling, and slicing the resultant mass in the same manner as one of the harder rocks. They show that clay rocks contain abundant very small grains of quartz (about 0·01 to 0·05 mm. in diameter), with often felspar, tourmaline, zircon, epidote, rutile and more or less calcite. These may form more than one-third of an ordinary shale; the greater part, however, consists of still smaller scales of other minerals (0·01 mm. in diameter and less than this). Some of these are recognizable as pale yellowish and white mica; others seem to be chlorite, the remainder is perhaps kaolin, but, owing to the minute size of the flakes, they yield very indistinct reactions to polarized light. They are also often stained with iron oxide and organic substances, and in consequence their true nature is almost impossible to determine. It is certain, however, that the finer-grained rocks are richest in alumina, and in combined water; hence the inference is clear that kaolin or some other hydrous aluminium silicate is the dominating constituent. These results are confirmed by the mechanical analysis of clays. This process consists in finely pulverizing the soil or rock, and levigating it in vessels of water. A series of powders is obtained progressively finer according to the time required to settle to the bottom of the vessel. The clay is held to include those particles which have less than 0·005 mm. diameter, and contains a higher percentage of alumina than any of the other ingredients.
As might be inferred from the differences they exhibit in other respects, clay rocks vary greatly in their chemical composition. Some of them contain much iron (yellow, blue and red clays); others contain abundant calcium carbonate (calcareous clays and marls). Pure clays, however, may be found almost quite free from these substances. Their silica ranges from about 60 to 45%, varying in accordance with the amount of quartz and alkali-felspar present. It is almost always more than would be the case if the rock consisted of kaolin mixed with muscovite. Alumina is high in the finer clays (18 to 30%), and they are the most aluminous of all sediments, except bauxite. Magnesia is never absent, though its amount may be less than 1%; it is usually contained in minerals of the chlorite group, but partly also in dolomite. The alkalis are very interesting; often they form 5 or 10% of the whole rock; they indicate abundance of white micas or of undecomposed particles of felspar. Some clays, however, such as fireclays, contain very little potash or soda, while they are rich in alumina; and it is a fair inference that hydrated aluminous silicates, such as kaolin, are well represented in these rocks. There are, in fact, a few clays which contain about 45% of alumina, that is to say, more than in pure kaolin. It is probable that these are related to bauxite and certain kinds of laterite.
A few of the most important clay rocks, such as china-clay, brick-clay, red-clay and shale, may be briefly described here.
China-clay is white, friable and earthy. It occurs in regions of granite, porphyry and syenite, and usually occupies funnel-shaped cavities of no great superficial area, but of considerable depth. It consists of very fine scaly kaolin, larger, shining plates of white mica, grains of quartz and particles of semi-decomposed felspar, tourmaline, zircon and other minerals, which originally formed part of the granite. These clays are produced by the decomposition of the granite by acid vapours, which are discharged after the igneous rock has solidified (“fumarole or pneumatolytic action”). Fluorine and its compounds are often supposed to have been among the agencies which produce this change, but more probably carbonic acid played the principal rôle. The felspar decomposes into kaolin and quartz; its alkalis are for the most part set free and removed in solution, but are partly retained in the white mica which is constantly found in crude china-clays. Semi-decomposed varieties of the granite are known as china-stone. The kaolin may be washed away from its original site, and deposited in hollows or lakes to form beds of white clay, such as pipe-clay; in this case it is always more or less impure. Yellow and pinkish varieties of china-clay and pipe-clay contain a small quantity of oxide of iron. The best known localities for china-clay are Cornwall, Limoges (France), Saxony, Bohemia and China; it is found also in Pennsylvania, N. Carolina and elsewhere in the United States.
Fire-clays include all those varieties of clay which are very refractory to heat. They must contain little alkalis, lime, magnesia and iron, but some of them are comparatively rich in silica. Many of the clays which pass under this designation belong to the Carboniferous period, and are found underlying seams of coal. Either by rapid growth of vegetation, or by subsequent percolation of organic solutions, most of the alkalis and the lime have been carried away.
Any argillaceous material, which can be used for the manufacture of bricks, may be called a brick-clay. In England, Kimmeridge Clay, Lias clays, London Clay and pulverized shale and slate are all employed for this purpose. Each variety needs special treatment according to its properties. The true brick-clays, however, are superficial deposits of Pleistocene or Quaternary age, and occur in hollows, filled-up lakes and deserted stream channels. Many of them are derived from the glacial boulder-clays, or from the washing away of the finer materials contained in older clay formations. They are always very impure.
The red-clay is an abysmal formation, occurring in the sea bottom in the deepest part of the oceans. It is estimated to cover over fifty millions of square miles, and is probably the most extensive deposit which is in course of accumulation at the present day. In addition to the reddish or brownish argillaceous matrix it contains fresh or decomposed crystals of volcanic minerals, such as felspar, augite, hornblende, olivine and pumiceous or palagonitic rocks. These must either have been ejected by submarine volcanoes or drifted by the wind from active vents, as the fine ash discharged by Krakatoa was wafted over the whole globe. Larger rounded lumps of pumice, found in the clay, have probably floated to their present situations, and sank when decomposed, all their cavities becoming filled
