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Show 74 thinking and seeing like a glacier. He did not take his excursion lightly, since he had been in the city, and was aware that a winter storm might isolate him in the backcountry. Tenaya Canyon is a world of avalanche; Cloud's Rest, runnelled with avalanche courses, is a reminder of rushing snow. But as he said, he was "seduced by the voice of Tissiac," Half Dome, the guardian of the canyon; "never did her soul reveal itself more than now." This was also a hint to the scientist in him, for he was interested in proving that Tissiac was not half a dome at all, but a whole and glacially carved monument, whose front was chiselled by the Tenaya Glacier. Unfortunately, he was carrying a heavier burden than usual. He was a scientific expedition, not a man. He had been weakened by city life, and hoped that "a fast and a storm and a difficult canon were just the medicine." But he also confessed, "I was anxious to carry my barometer and clinometer through it, to obtain altitudes and sections." He was not going light, for his city legs would have to carry civilized devices and a mechanistic attitude into the wilds. This arithmetical work was not the sort of thing Muir ever enjoyed, but it was the kind of evidence that the scientific world demanded. Almost immediately he slipped on the polished apron of Mount Watkins and fell. And with the fall went all of his tools, except those which were a part of his more intimate self. This was a shock that he needed. He "felt degraded and worthless," and addressed his feet with disdain. He blamed his clumsiness |