STEEP TRAILS 



canon is, or what impression it makes, from 

 descriptions or pictures, however good. Nat- 

 urally it is untenable even to those who have 

 seen something perhaps a little like it on a 

 small scale in this same plateau region. One's 

 most extravagant expectations are indefi- 

 nitely surpassed, though one expects much 

 from what is said of it as "the biggest chasm 

 on earth" — '^so big is it that all other big 

 things — Yosemite, the Yellowstone, the Pyra- 

 mids, Chicago — all would be lost if tumbled 

 into it." Naturally enough, illustrations as to 

 size are sought for among other canons like or 

 unlike it, with the common result of worse con- 

 founding 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 pla- 

 teau, and both are mainly the work of water. 

 But the Colorado's canon is more than a thou- 

 sand times larger, and as a score or two of new 

 buildings of ordinary size would not appre- 

 ciably 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. 



350 



