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Show 289. not his real objection. He found the need for meat a "depraved appetite" and an indication of Man's lack of true independence. If someone wanted milk or butter in the wilderness, Muir said he was "never weaned." His journal suggests that he was influenced strongly by Thoreau's view of Man as gross feeder when in a larval state. In "Higher Laws," Henry asked, "Is it not a reproach that man is a carnivorous animal?" Muir did not grow beans in Yosemite, nor did he eat pine nuts as did the Douglas squirrel. He did not learn from the Indians how to eat acorns. In fact there was a minor controversy in 1869 when Galen Clark, Yosemite Guardian, tried to keep Yosemite Indians from cutting branches off oaks in order to gather acorns in early fall. The Indians could not understand how Americans cut down large numbers of oaks for their ranches, but natives could not remove a few branches from their own trees. Muir ate bread made from wheat, the wheat a product of the monoculture which eradicated the gardens of the Central Valley. At one time he asked Jeanne Carr about the possibility of obtaining concentrated bread and meat. He thought he might be able to carry a whole year' s supply with him and purchase total independence in this way. In more than practical terms this was a false hope, and indicates how little Muir was either a hunter or gatherer. He sought to avoid the violence in Nature by doing no violence himself. This was a serious concern for him and explained why he would not kill his meat. But it was a strangely unexamined issue. What was the difference between |