famous Grand Canyon 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 canyon is more than
a thousand times larger, and as a score or two of 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 Canyon 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 canyon 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 canyon 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 canyon 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
Canyon 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 great
rivers have been traced to their heads.

The Colorado River rises in the heart of the continent on the dividing
ranges an