STEEP TRAILS 



and gentleness of touch, and fondled the little 

 cedars and pines as they quivered eagerly in 

 the wind like young birds begging their moth- 

 ers to feed them. The first flakes and crystals 

 began to fly about noon, sweeping straight 

 up the middle of the canon, and swirling in 

 magnificent eddies along the sides. Gradually 

 the hearty swarms closed their ranks, and all 

 the canon was lost in gray gloom except a 

 short section of the wall and a few trees be- 

 side us, which looked glad with snow in their 

 needles and about their feet as they leaned 

 out over the gulf. Suddenly the storm opened 

 with magical effect to the north over the 

 canon of Bright Angel Creek, inclosing a sun- 

 lit mass of the canon architecture, spanned 

 by great white concentric arches of cloud like 

 the bows of a silvery aurora. Above these and 

 a Uttle back of them was a series of upboilin^ 

 purple clouds, and high above all, in the back- 

 groimd, a range of noble cmnuli towered aloft 

 like snow-laden mountains, their pure pearl 

 bosses flooded with sunshine. The whole no- 

 ble picture, calmly glowing, was framed in thick 

 gray gloom, which soon closed over it; and 

 the storm went on, opening and closing until 

 night covered all. 



Two days later, when we were on a jutting 

 point about eighteen miles east of Bright Angel 



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