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Show 454. glacier, up the North Face of Mount R i t t e r to the fountains of life, and then was allowed t o s a u n t e r with Muir down through the passes, l a k e s , meadows, and f o r e s t s where he could observe the l i f e in the mountains, the storms, and f i n a l l y the f o o t h i l ls and valleys fed by t h e mountains. The Mountains of California was structured t o p r e s e n t an anatomy of C a l i f o r n i a ' s s p i r i t u al watershed. In t h i s sense i t could become the new testament for the Sierra Club, being t h e n a r r a t i v e of i t s p r e s i d e n t ' s - its prophet's - s o j o u r n in the w i l d e r n e s s . One wonders: did Americans or even Club members a p p r e c i a t e the difference between the t e x t Muir p r e s e n t e d and the speeches of "conservationists" they were h e a r i n g with i n c r e a s i n g frequency? Maybe they d i d n ' t , because they d i d n ' t want to be faced with the choice between the two v e r s i o n s of t h e i r f u t u r e . They didn't want t o choose between God and The Machine. BEFORE THE FORESTRY COMMISSION The p o l i t i c a l h i s t o r y of c o n s e r v a t i o n in the United States during the e i g h t e e n n i n e t i e s i s almost unbelievably chaotic and tangled. Muir e n t e r e d the p o l i t i c a l megamachine with great hesitancy, but by mid decade he was f u l l y engaged in the struggle. The most s i g n i f i c a n t governmental a c t i o n s , from Muir's p e r s p e c t i v e , were (1) P r e s i d e n t H a r r i s o n ' s r e s e r v a t i on of 13,000,000 a c r e s of watershed in 1891, p r i m a r i l y on the Pacific s l o p e , (2) the formation of a F o r e s t r y Commission in 1896, by t h e National Academy of Sciences, and (3) President |