第14章　仙境

《爱丽丝梦游仙境》只是一个童话故事，可在美国的大西部，却有一个真真实实的“仙境”。其中的奇迹之一，便是一条河。这条河叫作科罗拉多河，可它并不位于科罗拉多州境内，而是位于亚利桑那州境内。

这条河，流淌在世界上最深的一条沟里，在有些地方，这条沟甚至深达一英里呢。西班牙人将这条沟称为“大峡谷”。你们可以站在科罗拉多大峡谷一侧，俯瞰差不多一英里之下：科罗拉多河就像是一道细线，在谷底流淌而过，可正是这条小河，凭一己之力，切入、侵蚀了它所流经的这道峡谷。就算在别处也可以向下挖掘一英里深，但我们在此还是可以比在全世界其他任何地方更好地看到地球内部的模样，因为在这里，一条小河已经替我们向下挖掘了一英里。我曾经问过导游，到大峡谷那一边有多远。

“哦，”他回答道，“大概喊上十声或者十二声那样远吧。”对我来说，这可是一种新的距离，因为我连喊一声有多远都不知道呢。我的数学知识规定，十二英寸是一英尺，三英尺则合一码，可没有说过多少英尺合一“喊”呢。你们可以眺望大峡谷的那一边，看到对面的谷壁高达差不多一英里，那道谷壁，并不是一堵像是建筑物里的那种普通而单调的墙壁，而更像是天堂里的一堵墙壁，它是由岩石一层layer has been dyed a different color by minerals like iron and copper；if there was iron in the water, it turned the rock the color of iron rust—red；if copper, it turned the rock green.

I once bought a souvenir pencil. In its end was a pinhole, and when you squinted into the hole with one eye, there you saw in all its vastness the Colorado Canyon.It seemed impossible, and yet there it was, stretching off in the distance, mile upon mile, in a picture the size of a pin head！

Some of the branches of the Colorado run in smaller canyons, and high up on the walls of these canyons are houses built in caves in the rock. Once upon a time, long, long ago, people whom we call“cliff-dwellers”built these homes j there to be safe from their enemies.

A giant hop and skip north from the Grand Canyon would bring one to the State of Utah, where there is a great lake, but this Great Lake is different from the five“Great Lakes.”The water in the five Great Lakes is fresh, the water in this great lake is salt, so it is called Great Salt Lake, though it is really a little ocean. As in the case of the ocean, rivers run into the Great Salt Lake, but no rivers run out of it.

What makes it salt?The same thing

层堆叠起来的，颜色丰富，有黄色、红色、绿色、橙色、紫色，与阳光和阴影混合驳杂，显得五彩斑斓。这些岩层曾经都位于海底，因为它们都是石灰岩或者砂岩。每种岩层都因为含有像铁或铜这样的矿物质而呈现出不同的色彩：如果水中含铁，那么它就会把岩石变成铁锈的颜色，即红色；如果水中含的是铜，那它就会让岩石呈现出绿色来。

我曾经买过一支用来做纪念品的铅笔。铅笔一端有个小孔，如果眯起一只眼睛，向小孔里望去，就会看到科罗拉多大峡谷那种广袤无垠的景象。这似乎是不可能的，可事实就是如此，在一幅针尖般大小的图画上，科罗拉多大峡谷竟然一英里一英里地向远处延伸着！

科罗拉多河有的支流是在其他一些较小的峡谷里流淌着，而在那些峡谷高高的谷壁上，还有一些房屋，修建在岩石上的洞穴里。那些房屋，都是很久、很久以前我们所谓的“悬崖洞人”修建的，目的是为了让他们不致遭到敌人的侵扰。

从大峡谷往北，经过一个巨大的“三级跳”，我们就会来到犹他州。那里有一个巨大的湖泊，可这个“大湖”，却与那五个“大湖”不一样。五大湖区的湖水都是淡水，可这个大湖里的湖水却是咸水，因此这个大湖便被称作“大盐湖”，不过，它其实就是一个小小的海洋。因为与海洋的情况一样，大盐湖有河流注入，却

that makes the ocean salt.

What makes the ocean salt?

The ground through which rivers flow is salt. If you ever tasted the ground, you would know it, but, of course, I don't suppose you ever have, unless you have fallen and gotten some in your mouth or on your lips.Rivers, as they flow along, wash some of this salt out of the ground, carry it along, and dump it into the ocean.They carry so little salt at a time you would never know by tasting the river water that it was salt at all, but the rivers pour in this ever so little bit of salt all the time, all

the time, and so the salt gradually does collect in the ocean and in Great Salt Lake, for there is no way for the salt to go out once it's in the ocean or the lake. The water gets out of the lake as it does out of the ocean—by rising into the air as vapor—evaporating, we call it—but the salt doesn't evaporate, it can't rise into the air, and so it has no way of getting out.

The Great Salt Lake is getting saltier and saltier all the time. It is already much saltier than the ocean.Salt water holds up a person or anything in it much better than fresh water, and the saltier the water the more it holds the person up.So in Great Salt Lake you couldn't drown whether you knew how to swim

没有河流排出。

是什么原因，使得这个湖中的水是咸水呢？

这与使得海水成为咸水的原因是一样的。

是什么原因，使得海水是咸的呢？

这是因为，河流流经的土壤是咸的。如果以前尝过泥土的味道，那大家就会明白这一点，但是，除非你们摔倒过，把泥土弄到了嘴里或者粘到了嘴唇上，否则我当然认为你们没有尝过。在一路流淌的过程中，河流会将土壤里的这种盐分溶解，然后一路携带着，最终汇入海洋之中。它们一次只会带走一点点儿盐分，因此你们完全不可能通过尝一尝河水，就感觉出河水的咸味来，不过，由于河流始终都在将这一点点的盐分不断地注入海洋当中，所以海洋和大盐湖里的盐分便开始逐渐地越积越多了：因为一旦注入海洋或者湖中，这种盐分就没有办法再流失出去。湖水逸出的方式，与海水是一样的，那就是变成水蒸气，升到空中（我们称这一过程为蒸发），可盐分却不会蒸发掉，不能升到空中，因而无法流失出去。

大盐湖一直都在变得越来越咸、越来越咸，使得那里的湖水如今比海水都要咸得多了。咸水浮起其中的人或者别的东西的本领，要比淡水大得多，而且，水越咸，它浮起水中之人的力量也越大。因此，在大盐湖里，无论会不会游泳，大家都是不会溺水的。你们既可以在水中站着，也可以坐在水里，还可以像躺在沙发上那

or not. You can stand in the water or sit in the water or lie down on the water as you would on a sofa.You can read the paper or eat your luncheon while sitting in the water, but you have to be very careful not to get any of the water in your eyes or in any small cut you may have on your hands or body, for the salt water is so strong it smarts.Some day the ocean will be as salty as Great Salt Lake, for the ocean too is slowly, very slowly, getting saltier and saltier all the time.Then, even if there were a shipwreck, people would not drown—they would bob about in the sea like corks.

Still farther north, a hop, skip, and a jump from the Colorado Canyon, in the corner of the State of Wyoming, is a place that looks on the map like a little State within the State. It is called Yellowstone Park.There are so many wonderful things in this part of the State—freaks, funny things, and lovely things—that the United States thought people would like to see them, so they made a Park of this corner of the State, with good roads and hotels, for people who wish to see the sights.No hunting is allowed, so wild animals and birds can live and raise families without fear of being killed.There are bears in Yellowstone Park, but as they are not allowed to be hunted or shot, they become very tame and people can even go close enough to photograph them.

The World in that part of the country has not yet cooled off altogether, and it is still very hot not far down under the ground. If a person asked me to have a glass of spring water, I should expect a nice cool drink；but if the spring were in Yellowstone Park the water would probably scald my throat, for there are hundreds of springs in Yellowstone Park heated so hot by underground fires that they boil up and over like a pot on the fire.

样，躺在水面上呢。你们可以坐在水里看报纸或者吃午餐，不过，大家得非常小心才行，不能让湖水进入眼睛里面，不能让湖水浸到自己手上或者身上可能有的任何小伤口里，因为咸水太厉害，会刺得眼睛和伤口生疼生疼。有朝一日，海水也会变得像大盐湖里的湖水那样咸，因为海洋也一直都在慢慢、慢慢地变得越来越咸、越来越咸。到了那时，就算船只在海上失事，乘客也不会溺死了，因为他们会像软木塞一样，浮在海里呀。

再往北去，从科罗拉多大峡谷再来一个三级跳，就到了怀俄明州的一个角上，那里有个地方，在地图上看起来，就像是怀俄明州里面又有一个小州似的。这个地方，叫作黄石公园。怀俄明州的这个地区，有许多、许多的奇妙之处，有奇怪、有趣而可爱的东西，美国觉得人们可能都会想来看一看这些东西，因此便将怀俄明州的这个角落变成了一个公园，并且修建了一条条大路和一座座好旅馆，供那些希望去观赏美景的人用。那里禁止打猎，因此野生动物和鸟儿可以生活在那里，可以繁衍后代，而不用害怕遭到人们猎杀。黄石公园里有熊，但由于禁止猎杀，因此它们都变得非常温驯了，游客甚至还可以走近它们去拍照。

地球在美国这一地区的部分，还没有彻底冷却下来，因此在地面以下不远的地方，温度仍然非常高。要是有人请我喝上一杯井水的话，那么我心里肯定会想，这杯井水一定是凉丝丝的，不过，要是那口井位于黄石公园的话，井水十有八九就会烫伤我的喉咙，因为黄石公园里有成百上千眼井都被地热烧得滚烫，还会像炉子上

There is a big lake in Yellowstone Park called Yellowstone Lake. You can stand on its edge and catch a fish in the lake and, without taking the fish off the hook, drop it into one of the hot springs near shore and cook it.In other places the water is blown up by the steam underneath into fountains.These fountains are called“geysers，”and some are quite big and some are quite beautiful.One called“Old Faithful”spouts regularly about once every hour, throwing a beautiful stream of water straight up into the air like a gigantic fire-hose.It does this so faithfully that it seems almost as if a person turned the water on and off, but it has been spouting this way ever since it has been known—never missing an hour, night or day, never forgetting, never running down, more faithful than any human being would or could be.

的水壶那样沸腾起来呢。

黄石公园里有一个大湖，叫作黄石湖。你们可以站在岸边，钓起湖中的一条鱼，然后都不用把鱼从鱼钩上取下来，只需直接扔进湖边的温泉中煮熟，就可以吃了。在其他一些地方，井水还会被地下形成的蒸汽冲向空中，形成一座座喷泉。这种喷泉，就叫“间歇泉”，有些间歇泉的规模相当巨大，有些间歇泉则非常漂亮。其中有一座间歇泉，叫作“老忠实”，差不多每个小时都会喷发一次，并且每次都是径直向空中喷出一道美丽的水雾，宛如一条巨大的消防水龙。这座间歇泉始终这样有规律地喷发着，简直就像是有一个人在那里将井水开了关、关了开似的，自从人们发现这眼喷泉之后，它就一直都在这样喷发，从未间断过一个小时、一个昼夜，从不遗忘、从不衰竭，比任何人都要更加忠实呢。