第16章　最遥远的西部（续）

出个谜语给大家来猜一猜吧。什么东西没有腿，却能跳得像华盛顿纪念碑那样高呢？过一会儿，我再告诉你们答案。

俄勒冈州和华盛顿之间有一条河流，叫作哥伦比亚河，是用哥伦布的名字命名的。哥伦比亚河里有一种大型的鱼类，叫作鲑鱼。鲑鱼原本生活在海洋的咸水当中，但母鲑鱼要产籽的时候，却会沿着哥伦比亚河逆流而上，到瀑布上游很远的地方，去寻找水流平稳、适合产籽的水域。母鲑鱼又怎么能够通过那些瀑布呢？告诉你们吧，它们都是跳上瀑布的。你们可能都很奇怪，没有腿的鱼儿怎么能够跳跃，尽管这是一种很古怪的现象，可这种鱼儿确实能够跳跃呢。它们是先把尾巴弯成弓弦似的，然后猛地一弹，就上去了。鲑鱼能够跳得像华盛顿纪念碑那样高啊。

“那些瀑布的落差都像华盛顿纪念碑那样高吗？”

“不，瀑布的落差都很低。”

“可您说的是鲑鱼能够跳得像华盛顿纪念碑那样高啊。”

“鲑鱼当然能够，因为华盛顿纪念碑根本就跳不起来！”

数百万条鲑鱼聚集在一起，形成所谓的“群”，浩浩荡荡地在河中逆流而上。虽说渔夫会用渔网捕捉，但他们也会放过绝大部分鲑鱼，好让它们产下能够孵出小鲑鱼的鱼子来。而小鲑鱼出生后，又会在河中顺流而下，进入海洋，并在那里their turn swim up the river, jump up the falls, and are either caught or left to raise more families of little salmon.Salmon meat is pink；we call it salmon color.It is packed in cans.You have probably eaten salmon from the Columbia River yourself.

The oldest fruit in the World is the apple. It is the fruit that grew in the Garden of Eden, but people believe the apple that Eve gave Adam was a very poor one compared to the apples that grow in the State of Washington.People in Washington, D.C.—all the way across the country—buy apples that have been shipped from Washington State—3，000 miles away—for they are so much better than ordinary apples.They are“skookum.”That's what the Indians of the Northwest call something very nice—whether it is a girl or an apple.

There are great forests in Washington and Oregon. The forest trees are cut down to make lumber for building houses；and the paper I am writing on was made from trees that grew in Oregon.How do I know that?When I hold the paper up to the light, there is printed in white—we call it a watermark—the word“Oregon.”

At the northwest corner of America is a large country that belongs to the United States and yet it is not a State. It is called a Territory.It is Alaska.The highest mountain in North America is there.It is called Mount McKinley.Alaska is so cold, so far off, and so hard to get to, and yet the United States bought it and paid millions of dollars for it, not because it had the highest

生活、长大，直到它们也准备产籽的时候，便轮到它们在河中逆流而上，跳上那些瀑布，然后要么被渔夫捕住，要么便是留下来产籽、孵出更多的小鲑鱼来。鲑鱼肉呈粉红色，我们把这种颜色称为“肉粉色”。鲑鱼肉都是装在罐头里面的。你们很可能都吃过了哥伦比亚河出产的鲑鱼呢。

世界上最古老的水果，就是苹果。苹果也就是生长在伊甸园里的那种水果，可人们认为，夏娃给亚当吃的那个苹果，与华盛顿州出产的苹果比起来，质量却低劣得很。位于美国东海岸华盛顿特区里的市民买到的苹果，都是从三千英里以外的华盛顿州运来的，因为那里出产的苹果与普通苹果相比，品质要优良得多。它们都是“呱呱叫”。这个词，是西北地区的印第安人用于形容某种非常不错的东西的，他们无论形容的是一位姑娘还是一个苹果，都是用这个词。

华盛顿和俄勒冈两个州，都被广袤的森林覆盖着。林中的树木被人们砍伐下来，当成建筑房屋的木材，而我此时正在写字的纸张，也是用俄勒冈出产的树木制成的。不过，我又是怎么知道的呢？这是因为，如果把纸张举起来，对着光线，我就能看到纸上印有白色的“俄勒冈”字样，这种字样，我们称之为“水印”。

美洲的西北角上，有一大片土地，虽说那里也属于美国，但它并不是一个州。这个地方，被称为“准州”。这个准州，就是阿拉斯加。北美洲最高的山峰就位

mountain, but chiefly because of the fish in its waters and the fur on its animals, and then one day gold was discovered there.

Gold is a magic word. Again, as in the days of the Forty-niners, thousands of people, when they heard of the gold, left everything and, with nothing but shovels to dig the gold and sieves to strain it out of the water, started off to that far-away place, hoping to make their fortunes before the new year.Many foolishly went off with nothing to live on after they reached Alaska.They didn't seem to know that where the gold was to be found there was no food, nothing to eat, and no stores where one could buy food.Others, more wise, carried cans of food with them, and when the foolish gold-diggers had found gold, the wise ones sold them food for their gold.For a can of beans they often asked hundreds of times what it had cost, and the foolish gold-diggers had to pay it or starve, for they couldn't eat gold and they had to eat or die.So the wise ones came back with the gold which the foolish ones had dug, and the foolish ones were lucky to get back at all.

In the parts of Alaska where fish can be caught for food, Indians live in small villages. In the center of each village they put up a tall pole carved and painted in the forms of birds and animals with big ugly faces.These are called Totem Poles.Each tribe or family has some bird or

于这里，叫作“麦金利山”。虽说阿拉斯加的气候非常寒冷，距美国本土又那么遥远，那么难以到达，可美国还是支付了数百万美元，买下了此地，这并不是因为此地有一座最高的山峰，而主要是因为美国希望获得阿拉斯加周边水域里的出产的鱼类和那里的动物皮毛。而接下来，有一天人们又在那里发现了黄金。

黄金可是一种咒语。就像“四九年人”所处的那个时代一样，一旦听说阿拉斯加发现了黄金，便又有成千上万的人抛下一切，除了挖掘黄金的铲子、用于把黄金从水中淘出来的筛子之外，什么也不带，开始前往这个遥远的地方，希望在新年到来之前发上一笔大财。很多人还非常可笑，连生活用具都没有带，就抵达了阿拉斯加。他们似乎并不知道，发现黄金的那个地方既没有粮食，没有吃的东西，也没有可以买到食物的商店。还有一些人却比较聪明，随身带着罐头食品，因此，当那些可笑的淘金者找到黄金后，这些聪明人就开始用食物换取黄金了。一罐豆子，他们的要价通常都是正常售价的成百上千倍，那些愚蠢的淘金者却不得不用黄金来购买，否则他们就会挨饿，因为他们既不能吃黄金，又必须吃东西才行，不然就会饿死。因此，最终聪明人便带着愚蠢者淘来的黄金满载而归，那些愚蠢的人能够回去，就已经是很幸运的了！

在阿拉斯加那些能够捕鱼为食的地方，土著印第安人都聚居在一些小型的村庄里。他们在每个村庄的中央部位，印第安人都会立起一根高高的木杆，上面雕刻或者绘制着许多丑陋的鸟形或兽形大面具。这种木杆，叫作“图腾柱”。每个部落或者家族，都把某种鸟儿或兽类当成自己的吉祥物，比如鹰或者熊，就像大家可能animal such as an eagle or a bear for its mascot, as you might call your club“the Lions”or“the Owls，”and the Totem Pole is the tribe’s sign.

If you should suddenly see at night the whole northern sky hung with curtains of fire and ablaze with flashing flames shooting from the ground far up into the heavens, you might think, as I did the first time I saw it when a boy, that the World was coming to an end. It looked as if the World were on fire and were about to explode.This amazing sight is called the Aurora Borealis or Northern Light, and it may be seen often in Alaska and sometimes, though perhaps only once or twice in a lifetime, much farther south.It is a terrifying sight to those who have never seen or even heard of such a thing before, and yet the Aurora Borealis does no more harm than a beautiful sunset or a rainbow in the sky.

What causes the Aurora Borealis?That's a hard question to answer. Electricity has something to do with it and so have sun spots.Have you ever heard of sun spots?Sometimes a dark spot will appear on the sun and move slowly across it.You can't see sun spots because the sun is much too bright to be stared at.But men who look through telescopes with darkened glass to protect their eyes can see these spots and they can photograph them with special cameras.After a sun spot appears on the sun there is usually a very bright Aurora Borealis.

That's all I can tell you. A little girl once asked，“What is a thought made of?”That's a hard question to answer too.

把你们的俱乐部叫作“雄狮俱乐部”或者“猫头鹰俱乐部”一样，而“图腾柱”，就是每个部落的标志。

假如哪一天晚上，你们突然看到北方的天空中腾起一道火帘，熊熊燃烧着的火舌从地面高高地喷向空中，那你们可能会认为，世界末日到了，我小时候第一次见到那种情景后，曾经也是这样以为的呢。那种情形，就像是地球失了火，马上要爆炸了似的。这种令人诧异的景象，叫作“北极光”，阿拉斯加经常能够看到北极光，有的时候更往南的地方也能看到，只是比较罕见，一生中也就一两次罢了。对于那些以前从未见过、也从未听说过这种东西的人来说，北极光可是一种非常恐怖的现象，不过，就像美丽的日落或者空中的彩虹那样，北极光也不会给世人带来什么危害。

北极光是怎样形成的呢？这个问题可不容易回答。电与它有关，而太阳黑子也是如此。你们有没有听说过，什么是太阳黑子呢？这是指，有的时候，太阳表面会出现一个黑色的斑点，并且缓慢地从太阳表面一侧移动到另一侧的现象。大家用肉眼是看不到太阳黑子的，因为太阳太过明亮，没法直视。不过，人们通过装有能够保护眼睛的深色玻璃的望远镜，却能观看到这些斑点，并且用特殊的相机拍下来。每当太阳上出现黑子后，通常随后就会出现非常明亮的北极光。

我能告诉你们的，就只有这些了。一个小姑娘曾经问我说：“思想是由什么组成的呢？”这也是一个不易回答的问题啊。