Kansas and Oklahoma. 267 



where the highlands north of the streams break down into the 

 valleys springs issue at irregular intervals. Elm Spring, men- 

 tioned above as supplying the water for Alva, is but one of 

 scores on the north slope of Salt Fork. The same conditions 

 obtain for the Cimarron. The famous Cleo springs in southern 

 Woods County, near the mouth of Eagle Chief, consist of a 

 number of small springs which issue at the point of contact of 

 the Tertiary and Red-beds for a distance of a quarter of a mile 

 along the bluff. There is nearly enough water at this place 

 to turn a mill, if it were utilized. The water is very pure, 

 but perhaps not more so than that from hundreds of similar 

 springs. It only seems more pure in contrast with the water 

 of the Red-beds of the Glass Mountains across the river, 

 which being strongly impregnated with gypsum and other salts 

 is unfit for drinking. Dozens of other springs along Eagle 

 Chief are perhaps just as pure, but do not furnish as much 

 water as those at Cleo. 



Near the head of Bent's canyon, a southern tributary to the 

 Cimarron at the Great Salt plain, there are a number of the 

 finest springs in Oklahoma. The canyon in its upper part has 

 been carved out of the high plains between the Cimarron and 

 the North Canadian. The gorge is perhaps fifty feet deep and 

 a quarter of a mile wide. As seen from a distance the course 

 of the canyon is marked by a strip of green meandering across 

 the brown sage brush plain. A dense growth of underbrush, 

 with an occasional large cottonwood or elm interspersed here 

 and there, with grape vines and Virginia creepers fills the 

 canyon. This is one of the rarest bits of timber anywhere in 

 western Oklahoma, the delight of a botanical collector. As is 

 usual the bottom of the canyon is cut down into the Red-beds 

 while the upper part is composed of Tertiary. The line of 

 contact may often be seen. There are half a dozen or more 

 springs within the distance of half a mile from each of which 

 flows a stream half as large as a man's arm. In one case the 

 spring issues from the side of a cliff fifteen feet above the 

 stream. In another place the spring comes out in a little 

 amphitheater up a small canyon an hundred yards or more 

 from the main stream. A level bog covered with Monkey 

 flower and other aquatic plants fills the basin. Still another 

 spring a few rods further down stream supplies water for the 

 Bird and Hawkins ranch house. 



Along the North Canadian, besides the springs at Camp 

 Supply and those near Woodward mentioned above, one of 

 the most noted of the springs is the Osage Spring in eastern 

 Woodward County. The tributaries to this river, particularly 

 Beaver and Wolf Creeks, take their rise in the Tertiary farther 

 west and are fed by springs from this formation. It is a 



