第10章　五個大水坑

你們以前有沒有想過，一只螞蟻對我們這些踩到螞蟻窩的龐然大物會有什么感受，它們對一個小水坑又會有什么感受呢？

美國的北部邊境，有五個大水坑，起碼來說，它們在地圖上看上去就像是水坑，仿佛是一個不可思議的巨人將一把濕漉漉的雨傘立在那里，傘上的雨水流淌到大地上，從而形成了它們似的。我們將這些水坑稱為“五大湖區”，盡管一個腿長一英里的巨人可能會覺得它們只是小水坑，很容易就能涉水過去，但它們其實卻是美洲最大的湖泊呢。其中有兩個湖泊，即面積最小的那兩個，我在前面已經向你們介紹過了。它們就是伊利湖與安大略湖。另外兩個湖泊也都有個印第安名稱，即意思就是“大湖”的密歇根湖，以及休倫湖。大湖區面積最大的湖泊是蘇必利爾湖，意思就是“更大的湖”，就像我們說一個技術更好的橄欖球員或者一個得分比別人多的球員“優于”其他球員一樣。大湖區里，只有密歇根湖完全屬于美國，因為只有這個湖完全位于美國境內。其余四個湖泊，都有一半屬于美國北方的那個國家，即那個叫作加拿大的國家，因為這四個湖泊正好位于兩國的國界線上。美國擁有美國一側的那一半，加拿大則擁有加拿大那一側的一半。

蘇必利爾湖非但面積最大，地勢也比其他四個湖泊都要高。湖水通過一條叫作

into Lake Huron through a little river called St. Mary's, and in this river are falls.These falls in the St.Mary's River are called St.Mary's Jump, because the water jumps, jumps down.These falls are not nearly as high as Niagara Falls, but they are too high for boats to go over the jump, so men had to build canals with locks around the falls to lower boats down and raise them up from one lake to the other.As there are so many boats that want to go down and up, one canal was not enough to take care of all the boats that wanted to go round the falls, so men have built five canals round St.Mary's Jump.St.Mary's Jump in French is Sault Ste.Marie, and as this is so difficult to say, people simply call the falls Soo, the river Soo, and the canals Soo too.

Some of the boats on the Great Lakes are as big and fine as those on the ocean；and they have to be, for the Great Lakes are like small oceans. When you are out, far out, you cannot see land, and at times there are high waves and storms, just as at sea.The chief difference is that the water in the lakes is fresh, not salt.

“Business before pleasure.”

A great many people take trips on these big lake boats just as they do on the ocean—for pleasure；but the chief reason for the great number of ships that go from one end of the lakes to the other is not pleasure but business. The business is carrying things, which we call freight.It is much cheaper to send things by ship than by train, for one big ship can carry much more than many trains, and ships do not have to have land and tracks to run on, as trains do.When we send freight by train we also call that“shipping，”which seems strange.Every one would ship by ship instead of by train if he could, because it is so much

“圣瑪麗”的小河注入休倫湖，一路形成了多道瀑布。圣瑪麗河上的這些瀑布，被稱為“圣瑪麗瀑布”，因為此處的河水，是一級一級地往下跳落的。雖說這些瀑布的落差根本沒有尼亞加拉大瀑布那么高，可船只也不可能翻越過去，因此人們也只能開鑿帶有水閘的運河，繞過這些瀑布，才能讓船只下行或者上行，從一個湖泊駛入另一個湖泊。由于下行和上行的船只太多，因此一條運河根本就滿足不了所有想要繞過瀑布的船只的需求，故人們修建了五條繞過“圣瑪麗瀑布”的運河。在法語里，“圣瑪麗瀑布”被稱為“蘇圣瑪麗亞”，但由于這名稱太難念了，所以人們只是把這些瀑布叫作“蘇”，把圣瑪麗河叫“蘇”，把那幾條運河也叫“蘇”。

在五大湖區航行的一些船只，與在大海上航行的那些船只一樣龐大、一樣精美，而它們也必須這樣才行，因為五大湖個個都像是小小的海洋呢。大家坐船出湖的時候，到了很遠的地方，不但會看不見陸地，有的時候還會有驚濤駭浪和暴風雨，與大海上的情況一模一樣。二者主要的不同之處，就在于湖水是淡水，而不是咸水。

“先工作，后享樂。”

有許多的人，乘著這些大型的湖船往來，就像他們在海上航行一樣，只是為了享樂。不過，大量船只在湖泊上來去的主要目的，卻是為了做生意。這種生意，就是運送東西，即運送我們所稱的貨物。用船只來運送貨物，要比用鐵路運送貨物便宜得多，這是因為，一艘大船所運送的貨物，要比許多節列車運送的貨物多得多，而船只也不像火車，無須陸地和鐵軌就能來去。我們用火車運送貨物的時候，也將

cheaper, but of course you have to be near the water to ship by ship.

Fortunately, eight out of our forty-eight States are on the Great Lakes, although some of the States have only a small“frontage”on a lake. Michigan has the most frontage, by far.It fronts on four of the Great Lakes, all except Lake Ontario.

You remember that the Potomac Indians were great traders, paddling their canoes up and down the river, and swapping things they had for things they wanted. The Indians of the Great Lakes used to do the same thing.Nowadays the white man's huge ships—thousands of times bigger than the Indians'canoes made out of a single log—do the trading.They carry huge loads of freight from one end of the Great Lakes to the other, unloading at different places along the way the things that people want, and loading up with other freight to go back.

Most of the ships start at the far end of Lake Superior at a place called Duluth. Trains loaded with wheat come to Duluth from the wheat-lands west of that city, and other trains loaded with iron ore from mines near-by.Then huge machines on the shores of the lakes, with giant hands of iron, lift whole cars of wheat and ore and dump them into the ships waiting to be filled, as you would lift a toy car of your toy train and empty its load with two fingers.Other ships collect copper ore and also iron from that part of Michigan which is on Lake Superior.They then carry their loads through the Soo Canal and unload at a place called Detroit, between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, or carry their iron ore to Cleveland and Buffalo on Lake Erie.Most of the ships do not go past Niagara Falls.

這種方式稱為“貨運”，看起來似乎有點兒奇怪。只要做得到，大家都會利用船運，而不會去用鐵路運輸，因為前者要的成本要低得多，不過，人們當然也得在距水邊很近的地方，才能用船只來進行運輸。

幸好，美國的四十八個州中，有八個州位于大湖地區，但其中有些州，在湖區實際上只有一小片“臨湖地塊”。其中，密歇根州的臨湖土地面積最大。該州瀕臨五大湖泊中的四個，只有安大略湖除外。

你們都還記得吧，波托馬克河兩岸的印第安人都是些很了不起的商人，他們劃著獨木舟在河上來去，用他們已有的東西，換取他們想要的東西。大湖地區的印第安人，過去也經常這樣干。如今，這里則是白人制造的巨型船只在進行貿易了，這些船只，比印第安人用一根圓木制成的獨木舟都要大上好幾千倍呢。它們把巨大的貨物量從大湖地區的一端運送到另一端，一路上在不同的地方將人們想要的東西卸下來，然后再裝上其他的貨物返回去。

絕大多數船只，都是從蘇必利爾湖最西端一個叫作德盧斯的地方出發的。有些火車會將德盧斯市以西產麥區的小麥運送到該市，而其他一些火車又把附近鐵礦開采出的鐵礦砂運來。然后，湖邊一些巨大的機器便用它們那些巨型的鐵臂，將整車的小麥和鐵礦砂提起來，倒進等待裝貨的船只中去，就像你們用兩個手指拎起玩具火車的一節車廂，將里面的東西倒出去那樣。其他一些船只，則會裝上密歇根州瀕臨蘇必利爾湖那個地區出產的銅礦，還有鐵礦。然后，它們便運送著貨物，穿過“蘇運河”，再在休倫湖和伊利湖之間一個叫作底特律的地方把貨物卸下，或者將They load up again with things that have been made in New England, or in the east of the United States, or with coal from Pennsylvania, and go back to Duluth.

But when winter comes, all this trading up and down the lakes has to stop, for this part of the country is very cold and ice forms and stops the ships.

A baby is born every second, but in Detroit an automobile is born every minute. Most of the automobiles in the World are made in Detroit.Into one end of a Detroit factory go iron and wood, leather, etc.，and out at the other end comes an automobile.Every hour of the day hundreds of automobiles are finished and run out of the factories, to be shipped over the whole World.

I am sitting in a chair that was made from a tree that grew in Michigan, a thousand miles away, before I was born. The upper part of Michigan used to be covered with forests of trees especially suited for making furniture—and more furniture was made there, especially at a place called Grand Rapids, than at any other place in the World.You probably have some Grand Rapids furniture in your own home.Look on the bottom and see if you can find a label“Made in Grand Rapids.”So much furniture was made there that men have cut down and used up most of the trees, and only stumps are left.But the people had learned how to make furniture, and so they kept on making furniture, though now much of the lumber has to be brought to Michigan from other parts of the country.

Side by side, like two children trying to peek out of one small window, are two States looking out on Lake Michigan. They are Illinois and Indiana, written“Ill.and Ind.”for

鐵礦砂運送到伊利湖畔的克里夫蘭和布法羅去。絕大多數船只都不會航行到尼亞加拉大瀑布下游去。它們會再次裝上新英格蘭地區或美國東部地區制造出來的產品，或者裝上賓夕法尼亞州出產的煤炭，然后回到德盧斯去。

不過，到了冬天后，湖泊上下游之間進行的這種貿易，就得停下來了，因為這一地區的冬季非常寒冷，湖泊上面會結冰，從而讓船只無法航行。

世界上，每時每刻都有嬰兒出生，可在底特律，卻是每一秒鐘都會生產出一輛汽車來。世界上絕大多數汽車，都是在底特律生產的。在底特律的一家工廠里，從這頭進去的是鋼鐵、木材、皮革等東西，從那頭出來的就是一輛汽車了。每天的每一個小時里，都有數百輛汽車生產出來，駛出各家工廠，等待著運送到世界各地去呢。

我現在坐的一張椅子，正是用我出生前就生長于一千英里之外的密歇根州的一種樹木制成的。密歇根州的北部地區，以前都覆蓋著樹木茂密的森林，其中的樹木尤其適合用來做家具，那里生產出的家具，比世界上其他任何地方都要多，特別是在一個叫作“大急流城”的地方。你們自己家里，很可能就有一兩件產自“大急流城”的家具呢。找一找家具的底下，看能不能找到“大急流城制造”的標簽吧。由于生產了太多的家具，因此人們砍伐并用光了那里的大部分樹木，只留下了一個個樹樁。不過，由于那里的人已經學會了制造家具，因此他們便一直在生產家具，只是如今所用的許多木材，都只能從美國的其他地區運送到密歇根州來了。

此地有兩個州并排著，就像兩個試圖從一扇小窗戶向外偷看的小孩一樣，面對著密歇根湖。這兩個州，就是伊利諾伊州和印第安納州，分別縮寫為“伊利州”

short. The second largest city in the country is in the State of Illinois on the lower end of Lake Michigan.It has an Indian name—Chicago.More trains of cars come into and go out of Chicago than any other city in the World.Most trains going across the United States stop there and start there—freight trains carrying things and passenger trains carrying people.

There are a great many kinds of animals in the World, and yet of all these animals there are only three kinds that people generally eat. These three are the cow, the sheep, the pig.It takes millions of these animals every year to feed all the people in the United States, and millions of these animals are raised in the States near-by and far from Chicago.These animals have to be fed, and the food that is best to make them fat is corn, so whole States grow corn, just to feed cows and sheep and pigs.The State of Iowa grows more corn than any other State, so it is called the Corn State.Some of the corn is shipped to Chicago, but most of it is shipped“on the hoof”—that is, it is fed to the animals and the animals are sent alive to Chicago to be killed.They are kept in big pens called stock-yards until they are killed.From Chicago they are sent in refrigerator cars or ships, everywhere, even to Europe.Chicago is the greatest butcher-shop in the World.The bacon I had for breakfast, the ham sandwich I had for luncheon, and the roast beef I had for dinner came from Chicago.

和“印第州”。美國的第二大城市便在伊利諾伊州內，位于密歇根湖的南端。該市也有一個印第安名稱，叫作芝加哥。芝加哥市進出的一列列運送汽車的火車數量，比世界上其他任何一個城市都要多。其中絕大多數跨越整個美國的火車，都是在這里停留，然后再從這里出發的，其中既有運送貨物的貨運列車，也有運送旅客的列車。

雖說世界上有各種各樣的動物，可所有這些動物當中，人們通常吃的都只有三種。這三種動物，便是牛、羊和豬。每一年，全美國的人都要吃掉數百萬頭牛、羊和豬，而其中的數百萬頭牛、羊和豬，又都是在美國距芝加哥或近或遠的地方養殖出來的。這些動物得吃食，而能將它們喂肥的飼料則是玉米，因此整個美國都種玉米，目的就是為了喂養牛、羊和豬。愛荷華州出產的玉米，比其他各州都要多，因此該州還被譽為“玉米之州”呢。該州出產的玉米，一部分被運往了芝加哥，而其中的絕大部分，卻都是運給了那些“待宰之物”，即喂了動物，以及那些活著被運送到芝加哥去屠宰的牲畜。在屠宰之前，那些牲畜都被關在一種叫作“畜場”的大型圍欄里。屠宰后，它們又被裝到冷凍車或者冷凍船上，從芝加哥出發，運送到各地，甚至是運送到歐洲去。因此，芝加哥是世界上最了不起的屠宰場。我早餐所吃的培根，中飯所吃的漢堡三明治，以及晚餐時所吃的烤牛肉，可全都來自芝加哥呢。