The surficial clays are of two principal kinds—till and loess. Till is a deposit left by glaciers. It is a gray, blue-gray, or brown clay containing varying amounts of sand, pebbles, cobbles, and even boulders. Till is found at many places in the state and is used for brick making, especially in the Chicago area. Loess is a wind-deposited silty clay or clayey silt and is found in many parts of Illinois. It is thickest on or near the bluffs of the Mississippi, Illinois, and Ohio Rivers. It generally is brown and stands in steep faces in roadcuts and other excavations. It once was widely used for making brick and tile. Of major importance in making clay products in Illinois are the bedrock shales and the clays associated with the coal-bearing rocks that underlie much of the state. The shales, and the clays to a lesser extent, are dug at many places for making structural clay products such as bricks, structural tile, and drain tile. They also are used to make lightweight aggregate for concrete. The underclays of some of the older coal seams are used to make buff-colored brick, stoneware, and a highly heat-resistant brick (firebrick) that is used in industrial furnaces or in other operations involving high temperatures. Some fireclay, ground as fine as flour, is added to molding sand to make it coherent enough to form into molds for metal casting. Sewer pipe and flue lining also are made from underclays. Clays unlike those found elsewhere in the state occur in extreme southern Illinois. One of these has the property of removing color from oils and was so used at one time by petroleum refineries. Another, kaolin, was extensively used during World War I for making crucibles. Clay Minerals The uses of clay and shale are determined to a large degree by the properties of their clay minerals and to a lesser degree by the impurities present. A clay or shale containing the clay mineral illite, and other similar but less important clay minerals, commonly becomes red when fired and gets hard at a relatively low temperature. It therefore is used to make red bricks, drain tile, building tile, and other structural clay products. Another clay mineral, kaolinite, generally burns to a light color and is difficult to fuse. Therefore, clays composed wholly or mainly of kaolinite can be used for making buff or light-colored bricks and for the manufacture of highly heat-resistant (refractory) bricks. The clay mineral in the southern Illinois clay that was used to decolorize oil is montmorillonite. This clay is now used in sweeping compounds, as an oil absorbent, as animal litter, and for other purposes. Studies of Clay and Shale