64 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
much shorter but so-called main branch of Red River are far to the 
southeast, in northwestern Texas. 
The Canadian River valley is broad from Otero southward because 
it is excavated in the soft Pierre shale, which crops out in a wide zone 
across this portion of northern New Mexico. This shale is exposed 
here and there in shallow cuts along the railway. South of French the 
Timpas limestone is crossed, but its outcrop is hardly noticeable from 
the trains. From this point southward are shales which probably 
represent the upper formation (Apishapa shale) of the Niobrara group. 
The town of Springer is built on the north bank of Cimarron Creek, 
a running stream of moderate size, which rises in the Rocky Moun- 
tains 35 miles west. This creek is an entirely different 
Springer. stream from Cimarron River, which rises a few miles 
es 576 tect. east of Raton and flows through Oklahoma. Cimar- 
Kansas City 715 miles. PON Creek passes through the village of Cimarron, on 
the Santa Fe Trail 20 miles northeast of Springer, and 
empties into Canadian River a few miles east of Springer. 
A short distance below the juncture of Cimarron Creek and Cana- 
dian River is the beginning of the long, deep canyon which the 
Canadian cuts into the Dakota sandstone and underlying red beds. 
_ The water of the Cimarron, which has an average volume of 14 to 25 
second-feet, is used for the irrigation of 30,000 acres in the wide 
plains from Springer west to Cimarron Village. Formerly this region 
was entirely devoted to the cattle industry; now it is producing large 
crops of alfalfa, wheat, beans, potatoes, corn, oats, barley, and peas. 
Its fruit season begins in July with cherries, continues with apricots, 
plums, peaches, and pears, and ends in October with apples. 
A short distance south of Springer there are extensive exposures of 
the Timpas limestone in stream and railway cuts. Some years ago an 
attempt was made to utilize this rock for the manufacture of cement, 
but the project was not successful, and the old kilns are all that 
_ remain of the enterprise. , The limestone is in beds mostly from 6 to 
20 inches thick, alternating with thin layers of black shale. The 
rocks contain marine shells that are distinctive of the deposits of that 
period in this part of the intracontinental seas.* 
To the south and west of this place are extensive exposures of over- 
lying shales supposed to represent the Apishapa shale. They give 
rise to low but conspicuous buttes to the west and finally grade up 
into well-defined Pierre shale. 
' In this ae the Timpas limestone is | Cimarron Creek a few miles east of 
‘underlain by 250 feet of unmistakable | Springer. There are cuts in Timpas lime- 
Carlile shale, Genes to the top of char- | stone at intervals as far south as milepost 
acteristic Greenhorn prt which is | 704, where 6 feet of beds are exposed in 
cectohalicedy exposed in the banks of | layers 12 to 18 inches thick 
