CHAPTEE III. 
THE VERMILION CLIFFS AND VALLEY OF THE VIROEN. 
Grandeur and extent of the Vermilion Cliffs. — Their architecture and characteristic profiles. — Increase 
of their dimensions from Pipe Spring promontory to the Valley of the Virgen. — The great sand- 
stone entablature. — Their buttes. — Towers at Short Creek.— Cloud effects. — Optical delusions. — 
Smithsonian Butte.— The Temples and Towers of the Virgen. — Little Zion Valley. 
To this great wall, terminating the Triassic terrace and stretching from 
the Hurricane Ledge to the Paria, Powell has given the name of The Ver- 
milion Cliffs. Their great altitude, the remarkable length of their line of 
frontage, the persistence with which their proportions are sustained through- 
out the entire interval, their ornate sculpture and rich coloring, might justify 
very exalted language of description. But to the southward, just where the 
desert surface dips downward beneath the horizon, are those supreme walls 
of the Grand Canon, which we must hereafter behold and vainly strive to 
describe; and however worthy of admiration the Vermilion Cliffs may be 
we must be frugal of adjectives, lest in the chapters to be written we find 
their force and meaning exhausted. They will be weak and vapid enough 
at best. Yet there are portions of the Vermilion Cliffs which in some re- 
spects lay hold of the sensibilities with a force not much less overwhelming 
than the majesty of the Grand Canon ; not in the same way, not by virtue 
of the same elements of power and impressiveness, but in a way of their 
own and by attributes of their own. In mass and grandeur and in the 
extent of the display there is no comparison ; it would be like comparing 
a private picture gallery containing a few priceless treasures with the wealth 
of art in the Vatican or Louvre. All of the really superlative portions of 
the Vermilion Cliffs could be comfortably displayed in any one of half a 
dozen amphitheaters opening into the Kaibab division of the Grand Canon. 
51 
