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Show 187 Merced canon-tree, whose angular Yosemite does not appear as a natural portion thereof until viewed in its relation to its wide-spreading branches, with their fruit and foliage of meadow and lake. First, one notices that Muir's evergreen oak is an upside down version of Darwin's more abstract tree of strife. The branches of Muir's tree reach into the glacial past, and nourish the trunk. Then one realizes that Yosemite is really a comingling of two trees, the glacial tree which flows down from the heights, and the Tree of Life which ascends from the lowlands, bringing plants, meadows, birds, and beasts from below. They fuse in Yosemite, "things frail and fleeting and types of endurance meeting here and blending in countless forms." Then one realizes that Muir's Tree of Life is a spatial, geographical, and finally an economic system. The glaciers, as they sculpted the valleys, meadow and lake basins, and canyons of the Sierra, created mansions which house the life of the present Sierra. Muir would never use the term "niche" to describe these places - rather, he used the terms "mansion" or "temple" to indicate the spaciousness and freedom for flowing life which his vision of the world suggested. The branches of Muir's Tree of Life distributed the sun power stored in glaciers, gathered in snow and rain, finally distilled from flowing clouds. There is a nice paradox here, for glaciers are created by sun power, cold as they may seem. They are "fountains" too, supplying the summer flow of water so necessary for life in the mountains. They created the vascular |