| OCR Text |
Show 115, domes of Tuolumne. If Mount Ritter was a textbook in geological history, he was trying to read its earliest chapters. After a near view of its face, he hoped he would be ready to describe the panorama of Sierran history from the summit. It was perhaps surprising to Muir that he did not ascend beyond the influence of the glacier when he entered the North Face of Ritter. Even above it, he found the glacier the "most influential agent, constantly eroding backward . . . and enabling gravity to drag down large masses. . . ." He himself was almost one of those masses. So his lesson in gravity on the concave North Face was a lesson in geology. The other half of his training had to do with the structure of Ritter's own rock. What made it the "noblest mountain of the chain" was the grain of its own living rock. Its "predestined beauty" was a result of its own inner structure. As his precarious position had taught him, the noble face was not a result of upbuilding, but of "universal razing and dismantling" by glaciers and gravity. This geological rationale had other implications which went beyond Ritter's scientific significance. Perhaps one might say that the geology of Ritter was a clue to its more important significance as a fountain peak. A journey to the beginning of geological history became a pilgrimage to the beginning of creation. At such a place, a man might reestablish his own origins in the landscape. Thus the view from the summit embodied a harmony between reborn man and the land. |
