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Show 87. method of study. As he followed "the foot-prints of ancient glaciers that once flowed grandly from their ample fountains," he had unexpectedly discovered glacial silt: "Before I had time to reason, I said, Glacier mud, mountain meal!" Like Agassiz, Muir was arguing that scientific observation, cultivated by long practice, became instinctual. After this surprise, Muir became exuberant when he climbed over the terminal moraine and was faced with the prospect of a snowfield, etched with curving lines of dirt and stones. He shouted, "A living glacier 1" He perceived the green ice in a small crevasse, and was anxious to show by observations how he knew he had found a glacier. These observations confirmed the form of the glacier, and should have convinced anyone, Muir thought, but he found that his friends required "proofs of the common, measured, arithmetical kind." So the rest of his narrative, like the rest of his experience with this glacier, was transformed into a survey of moving stakes in an ice field. He dwelled on these dry facts, not because he wanted to, but because the exigencies of science seemed to require that he not report his "personal" experience, but only a mechanical "scientific" experience. Even if scientists refused to accept the whole truth as he had learned it, Muir could at least dramatize his method of study, which he did. It is clear the he slowly grasped the full meaning of his day on this glacier several years after he first reported it. When he enlarged his essay, and it appeared in Harper's as "Living Glaciers of California," Muir had a chance to integrate |