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Show 385. but would never know. The Scribner's a r t i c l e s were, then, written in the conventions of the picturesque. And they show how e a s i l y Muir made his t r a n s i t i o n into the fashionable language so loved by the eastern press. He was w r i t i n g genteel material for a genteel press. Here was the o r i g i n of the "genteel wilderness." When he replaced the "evergreen oak . . . craggy and angular as the valley i t s e l f . . . an admirable type of the craggy Merced canon t r e e , " with an elm t r e e in "The Mountain Lakes of California," Muir was well on his way toward a toned-down version of the S i e r r a , and one i s not surprised to find descriptions of landscape which accord with the conventions of the picturesque. "Picturesque j u n i p e r s , " "venturesome dwarf pines," and "graceful fringes" of oaks stood out in contrast against "unflinching rockiness," as Muir redrew for easterners his image of the S i e r r a . All through his Scribner' s articles, his imagery took on the anthropocentric conventions of the picturesque. A lake was born, "when, like a young eye it first opens to the l i g h t , " and lakes were described as "strung together l i k e beads." Muir hoped that t h i s kind of a r t i f i c e would make sentimental readers love the mountains they had never seen. Speaking to his eastern friends, he said, " . . . everything about you is heating with warm, t e r r e s t r i a l , human love, delightfully substantial and f a m i l i a r . " He began to attempt scenic pictures, °f certain types of lakes and meadows, which would "give a |
