150 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
connected north of the railroad by an almost unbroken outcrop, and 
shale of sufficient thickness and richness to warrant mining is sup- 
posed to underlie an area of at least 5,000 square miles in the Uinta 
Basin of northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah. 
The features below the town of Grand Valley are much the same 
as those above it: The same white cliffs, with the maroon band 
about the base, rise above the railroad on the north, and the broad 
swell of Battlement Mesa rises on the south. Between lies the open 
valley, with its band of trees fringing the river and its patches of 
arm land where the sur- 
face is sufficiently level for 
irrigation. In midsummer 
the valley displays beauti- 
ful shades of green, but in 
autumn, after the early 
frosts have touched the 
cottonwood trees along the 
river and the aspens on the 
slopes above, it bears a 
beautiful mantle of green 
Freon Si Relnon of th ane band gold. 
forced to the top of the arch, oil will come next, The hills across the val- 
and water will lie in the lower part. ley, although they lie with- 
in the Battlement Forest, are composed of the red and green shale 
and sandstone of the Wasatch formation and are almost devoid of 
vegetation. (See Pl. LXIV, A.) 
After being crowded close to the river by the high bluffs of the 
maroon shale and sandstone, the railroad suddenly emerges into the 
broad valley of Roan Creek at the little village of 
De Beque. De Beque, which is flanked on the north by the high 
pasos A945 tet turrets, towers, and minarets of the White Cliffs. 
Denver 417 miles, “8 Roan Creek heads on the high plateau it con- 
tains a never-failing supply of water, which is used 
over and over again in irrigating the level land within its valley. 
The pasture on the plateau is excellent, so that the principal indus- 
try in and around De Beque is stock raising. 
West of the river there is a slight arch in the rocks on which a 
number of wells have been drilled in search of oil. Some of these 
wells have found small quantities of oil, but most of them have been 
“dry holes ”—that is, holes that yield little or no oil. The slight arch 
in the rocks is regarded as favorable for the accumulation of oil, for 
oil and gas are generally associated with water in the rocks, and as 
they are lighter than water they are forced up into the high places or 
arches, as shown in figure 38, but in the region about De Beque there 
seems to be little or no oil in the rocks to accumulate. 
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