My First Summer in Sierra

Muir Pg.20
Quote- "...roads blasted in the solid rock, wild streams dammed and tamed and turned out of their channels and led along the sides of canyons and valleys to work in mines like slaves...These are the white man's marks made in a few feverish years, to say nothing of mills, fields, villages, scattered hundreds of miles along the flank of the Range. Long will it be ere these marks are effaced, though Nature is doing waht she can, replanting, gardening, sweeping away old dams and flumes, leveling gravel and boulder piles, patiently trying to heal every raw scar."
Response- Muir's statement demonstrates his disapointment with the white man, but it also shows his trust in nature. The statement is almost a cautionary statement for future societies. Nature can replenish itself after being mutilated, but it takes time. Muir's trust in nature might have proved to be more true during his time. The enviornmental issues that our society faces today are a continuation of those marks Muir believed the white man made and perhaps the damage will be too much for nature to handle.