ding confusion. The prudent keep silence. It was
once said that the "Grand Canon could put a dozen Yosemites in its vest
pocket."

The justly famous Grand Canon of the Yellowstone is, like the Colorado,
gorgeously colored and abruptly countersunk in a plateau, and both are
mainly the work of water. But the Colorado's canon is more than a thousand
times larger, and as a score or two new buildings of ordinary size would
not appreciably change the general view of a great city, so hundreds of
Yellowstones might be eroded in the sides of the Colorado Canon without
noticeably augmenting its size or the richness of its sculpture. But it
is not true that the great Yosemite rocks would be thus lost or hidden.
Nothing of their kind in the world, so far as I know, rivals El Capitan
and Tissiack, much less dwarfs or in any way belittles them. None of the
sandstone or limestone precipices of the canon that I have seen or heard
of approaches in smooth, flawless strength and grandeur the granite face
of El Capitan or the Tenaya side of Cloud's Rest. These colossal cliffs,
types of permanence, are about three thousand and six thousand feet high;
those of the canon that are sheer are about half as high, and are types
of fleeting change; while glorious-domed Tissiack, noblest of mountain
buildings, far from being overshadowed or lost in this rosy, spiry canon
company, would draw every eye, and, in serene majesty, "aboon them a'" she
would take her place--castle, temple, palace, or tower. Nevertheless a
noted writer, comparing the Grand Canon in a general way with the glacial
Yosemite, says: "And the Yosemite--ah, the lovely Yosemite! Dumped down
into the wilderness of gorges and mountains, it would take a guide who
knew of its existence a long time to find it." This is striking, and shows
up well above the levels of commonplace description; but it is confusing,
and has the fatal fault of not being true. As well try to describe an eagle
by putting a lark in it. "And the lark--ah, the lovely lark! Dumped down
the red, royal gorge of the eagle, it would be hard to find." Each in its
own place is better, singing at heaven's gate, and sailing the sky with
the clouds.

Every feature of nature's big face is beautiful,--height and hollow,
wrinkle, furrow, and line,--and this is the main master furrow of its
kind on our continent, incomparably greater and more impressive than
any other yet discovered, or likely to be discovered, now that all the