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Show 343. existence. To d e s c r i b e America as a hideous w i l d e r n e s s , however, i s to envisage i t as another f i e l d for the e x e r c i s e of power. This v i o l e n t image e x p r e s s e s a need to mobilize energy, postpone immediate p l e a s u r e s , and r e h e a r s e the p e r i l s and purposes of the community. This kind of polar view was f i x e d s t r o n g l y in the symbolic consciousness of America, and Muir knew t h a t he could only fight the d e s t r u c t i v e e x e r c i s e of power by using the language of the garden. It was r a r e , in the s e v e n t i e s , for him to even use the word w i l d e r n e s s . Instead he would speak of "wild gardens" or "the wildness of Nature." THE TRAVELLING CORRESPONDENT In the f a l l of 1874, Muir was happy to be on the road again, a f t e r more than t h r e e hundred days in San Francisco. He wrote to Jeanne Carr t h a t he had escaped from the work of book-making, and wrote to the r e a d e r s of the B u l l e t i n t h a t he was free of the " c h a r a c t e r i s t i c p r o c e s s e s and v i c i s s i t u d es of c i v i l i z a t i o n . " His j o u r n a l i n d i c a t e d a more s e r i o u s concern with the poisons of the c i t i e s and the "death e x h a l a t i o n s" that brood t h e r e . His condemnation of urban l i f e was c a t e g o r i c a l: "AH are more or l e s s s i c k ; t h e r e i s not a p e r f e c t l y sane man in San F r a n c i s c o . " Even when he wrote a r e p o r t on salmon breeding on the McCloud River he remained preoccupied with the Pollution of c i v i l i z a t i o n . He spoke of the d e s t r u c t i o n of |