ABSTRACT
This chapter considers Muir's theory of glaciation. According to Muir, Yosemite was reshaped due to glacial action. In 'The Mono Trail', from My First Summer in the Sierra, Muir comments on the role glaciers played in creating lakes and sculpting mountains, Camp at the west end of Lake Tenaya. Though Emerson and his antecedent Wordsworth do not participate in such campaigns as Romantic naturalists, their perceptions of nature shaped Muir. The chapter examines evidence in Muir's prose of resonances with Wordsworth's writing. In contrast to Roosevelt, Muir believed in the value of preserving forests in the national parks as reservoirs for the mind where the soul could be revitalized in the wild domain of redwoods. The chapter concludes with Muir's earnest effort to defend Hetch Hetchy Valley in California as he comes into being as an early environmentalist.
