DISTANCES AND HEIGHTS. 79 
point, I can look off to the west, up side canons of the Colorado, and see 
the edge of a great plateau, from which streams run down into the Colorado, 
and deep gulches, in the escarpment which faces us, continued by canons, 
ragged and flaring, and set with cliffs and towering crags, down to the river. 
I can see far up Marble Canon, to long lines of chocolate colored cliffs, and 
above these, the Vermilion Cliffs. I can see, also, up the Colorado Chi- 
quito, through a very ragged and broken canon, with sharp salients set out 
from the walls on either side, their points overlapping, so that a huge tooth 
of marble, on one side, seems to be set between two teeth on the opposite ; 
and I can also get glimpses of walls, standing away back from the river, 
while over my head are mural escarpments, not possible to be scaled. 
Cataract Canon is forty one miles long. The walls are 1,300 feet high 
at its head, and they gradually increase in altitude to a point about half 
way down, where they are 2,700 feet, and then decrease to 1,300 feet at the 
foot. Narrow Canon is nine and a half miles long, with walls 1,300 feet in 
height at the head, and coming down to the water at the foot. 
There is very little vegetation in this canon, or in the adjacent country. 
Just at the junction of the Grand and Green, there are a number of hack- 
berry trees ; and along the entire length of Cataract Canon, the high-water 
line is marked by scattered trees of the same species. A few nut-pines and 
cedars are found, and occasionally a red-bud or judas tree ; but the general 
aspect of the canons, and of the adjacent country, is that of naked rock. 
The distance through Glen Canon is 149 miles. Its walls vary from two 
or three hundred to sixteen hundred feet. Marble Canon is 65^ miles long. 
At its head, it is 200 feet deep, and steadily increases in depth to its foot, 
where its walls are 3,500 feet high. 
