登陆注册
15684600000083

第83章

There are no fish in Mono Lake--no frogs, no snakes, no polliwigs--nothing, in fact, that goes to make life desirable.Millions of wild ducks and sea-gulls swim about the surface, but no living thing exists under the surface, except a white feathery sort of worm, one half an inch long, which looks like a bit of white thread frayed out at the sides.If you dip up a gallon of water, you will get about fifteen thousand of these.They give to the water a sort of grayish-white appearance.Then there is a fly, which looks something like our house fly.These settle on the beach to eat the worms that wash ashore--and any time, you can see there a belt of flies an inch deep and six feet wide, and this belt extends clear around the lake--a belt of flies one hundred miles long.

If you throw a stone among them, they swarm up so thick that they look dense, like a cloud.You can hold them under water as long as you please--they do not mind it--they are only proud of it.When you let them go, they pop up to the surface as dry as a patent office report, and walk off as unconcernedly as if they had been educated especially with a view to affording instructive entertainment to man in that particular way.Providence leaves nothing to go by chance.All things have their uses and their part and proper place in Nature's economy: the ducks eat the flies--the flies eat the worms--the Indians eat all three--the wild cats eat the Indians--the white folks eat the wild cats--and thus all things are lovely.

Mono Lake is a hundred miles in a straight line from the ocean--and between it and the ocean are one or two ranges of mountains--yet thousands of sea-gulls go there every season to lay their eggs and rear their young.One would as soon expect to find sea-gulls in Kansas.

And in this connection let us observe another instance of Nature's wisdom.The islands in the lake being merely huge masses of lava, coated over with ashes and pumice-stone, and utterly innocent of vegetation or anything that would burn; and sea-gull's eggs being entirely useless to anybody unless they be cooked, Nature has provided an unfailing spring of boiling water on the largest island, and you can put your eggs in there, and in four minutes you can boil them as hard as any statement I have made during the past fifteen years.Within ten feet of the boiling spring is a spring of pure cold water, sweet and wholesome.

So, in that island you get your board and washing free of charge--and if nature had gone further and furnished a nice American hotel clerk who was crusty and disobliging, and didn't know anything about the time tables, or the railroad routes--or--anything--and was proud of it--I would not wish for a more desirable boarding-house.

Half a dozen little mountain brooks flow into Mono Lake, but not a stream of any kind flows out of it.It neither rises nor falls, apparently, and what it does with its surplus water is a dark and bloody mystery.

There are only two seasons in the region round about Mono Lake--and these are, the breaking up of one Winter and the beginning of the next.More than once (in Esmeralda) I have seen a perfectly blistering morning open up with the thermometer at ninety degrees at eight o'clock, and seen the snow fall fourteen inches deep and that same identical thermometer go down to forty-four degrees under shelter, before nine o'clock at night.

Under favorable circumstances it snows at least once in every single month in the year, in the little town of Mono.So uncertain is the climate in Summer that a lady who goes out visiting cannot hope to be prepared for all emergencies unless she takes her fan under one arm and her snow shoes under the other.When they have a Fourth of July procession it generally snows on them, and they do say that as a general thing when a man calls for a brandy toddy there, the bar keeper chops it off with a hatchet and wraps it up in a paper, like maple sugar.And it is further reported that the old soakers haven't any teeth--wore them out eating gin cocktails and brandy punches.I do not endorse that statement--I simply give it for what it is worth--and it is worth--well, I should say, millions, to any man who can believe it without straining himself.But I do endorse the snow on the Fourth of July--because I know that to be true.

同类推荐
  • 定公

    定公

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 遁甲演义

    遁甲演义

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 北京潭柘寺清拳

    北京潭柘寺清拳

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 金刚般若经

    金刚般若经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 第一义法胜经

    第一义法胜经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 瑞杰的密室

    瑞杰的密室

    《瑞杰的密室》第一部“迷”讲述了程序员绿筱在酒会上邂逅了先恒国际集团研发部主任柏瑞杰。两人成为情侣后,柏瑞杰带绿筱回柏家。令绿筱感到意外的是,柏瑞杰的父母柏钺铧和王致妍竟是曾经打算收养她的人,而且后者是陪伴她成长的人。不久之后,他们结为夫妇。绿筱跟随柏瑞杰到乡间别墅度假,却因频频做怪梦而大为苦恼,更发现好朋友叶子隐瞒了与柏瑞杰相识多年的秘密。适逢柏瑞杰启动一个试验项目,绿筱为了报答柏家的恩德,支持丈夫的事业,甘愿成为受试者。
  • 灵魂武器.

    灵魂武器.

    在生死关头捡到了可以变成武器的萝莉呢,真是开心啊!“也就是说,捡了你之后劳资只有十天命好活?”“是的。”“那十天之后挂掉和现在挂掉有什么区别吗?”“级别不足,查阅权限限制中。”“你这小萝莉到底想怎样!?”“主,朕想吃炸鸡腿。”
  • 夏与秋之交

    夏与秋之交

    四季的轮回,转眼夏天过去,秋天静静到来。希望老师们多多指教!
  • 闪婚甜宠:腹黑帝少的专属萌妻

    闪婚甜宠:腹黑帝少的专属萌妻

    未婚夫弃她而去,她转投纪氏少主怀抱,本以为是场默契的交易,然而某个夜里她却发现自己大错特错。“我们不是名义上的夫妻吗?你怎么能……”“我可从没这么说过。”她要逃离,可为时已晚,她即便是逃到了天涯海角,他也有办法分分钟出现在她面前,直到她落入他的陷阱无法自拔为止。多年后,萌宝公主一脸笑眯眯地说:妈咪,爹地说当年是妈咪对爹地穷追猛打,用尽手段缠上了爹地。甄茹雅咬牙切齿,世上竟有这么无耻颠倒黑白的男人!某男见势不妙急忙闪人,却被萌王子拦路截住,“爹地欺负妈咪,不许走!”
  • 我的同桌他有病

    我的同桌他有病

    “喂,你有病啊”“对啊,你有药吗?”一对欢喜冤家,时常吵架,但在关键时刻就是一头的,两个逗比的爱情
  • 南风尽

    南风尽

    我在讲述一个真实的故事,后来我就成了那个人,唯一活着的傻子。
  • 都市的平凡人

    都市的平凡人

    都市的平凡人平凡真的就是平凡么?古董字画为什么价值连城?珠宝玉器为什么有价无市?黄金白银为什么日日见涨?这下东西既不能吃也不能喝,更不能当衣服穿,为什么还很多人去买?难道真的是喜好收藏,但会有这么多人附庸风雅么?一切答案就在《都市的平凡人》欢迎大家阅读,看主角是和青梅竹马的恋人真爱一世平凡一生?还是得到无限权势而妻妾成群11无限?还是走上枯燥无味的修炼之旅来得到无限的生命。
  • 退出世贸

    退出世贸

    本书就中国在世贸组织里处于尴尬的境地,中国是最大的国际贸易受害国,却没有得到正当的对待,产生此问题的原因在于世贸组织是由美国、欧盟所控制的,并不是为中国及广大的发展中国家所设计的。世贸组织有其产生、发展、壮大以及衰落的过程,这是必然的当然世贸组织在其存在的历史中有其积极的意义,但现在美国、欧盟的经济都在衰退,贸易保护主义将长期盛行,不是短期,不要幻想,看问题要看本质,对于恶意的贸易保护不是你打官司就能解决的。
  • 跟巴菲特学投资

    跟巴菲特学投资

    本书总结了巴菲特40多年的投资经验,本着实用、全面的原则,从怎样选股,怎样评估股票价值、怎样找到最佳买卖时机、怎样持股等9个方面,结合具体的投资经典案例,教你在投资中怎样实践操作,让你迅速领会予菲特集中投资、长期持股、价值投资等投资策略、方法和思维。
  • 孟子(读好书系列)

    孟子(读好书系列)

    《孟子》“四书 ”之一。战国中期孟子及其弟子万章、公孙丑等著。为孟子、孟子弟子、再传弟子的记录。最早见于赵岐《孟子题辞》:“此书,孟子之所作也,故总谓之《孟子》”。《汉书·艺文志》著录《孟子》十一篇,现存七篇十四卷。总字数三万五千余字,286章。相传另有《孟子外书》四篇,已佚(今本《孟子外书》系明姚士粦伪作)。书中记载有孟子及其弟子的各项活动,涉及政治、教育、哲学、伦理等学说和思想