Chapter 103 Winter Lake - 5

As for the inlets and outlets of Walden, I have found nothing but rain and snow and evaporation, though a thermometer and a rope may perhaps be used to find out such a place, for where the water flows into the pond in summer about Is the coldest and about the warmest in winter.The ice diggers who were sent here in 1846-1847, were working one day and sent a part of the ice ashore, but the merchants who stocked the ice refused to accept it because it was less Others were much thinner, so that the ice-diggers discovered that in one small area the ice was two or three inches thinner than the rest, and they thought that there must be an entrance there.Another place they pointed out to me was what they believed to be a "hole" where water from the lake leaked down a hill to a neighboring meadow, where they put me on a block of ice Push it over to see.There is a small hole in the water about ten feet deep; but I promise you it will be fine if you don't fill it up, unless a larger hole is found later.It has been argued that if such a large "hole" does exist, and if it is indeed connected with the grass, it can be proved by putting some colored powder or sawdust over the opening of the hole, and then at the springs in the grass. Put a filter on the mouth, and you will be able to find some crumbs that are carried away by the running water.

The sixteen-inch-thick layer of ice, too, wavered in the slightest breeze, like water waves, as I surveyed.We all know that alcohol levels cannot be used on ice.On the ice, put a stick with the degree engraved on it, put the alcohol level on the shore, and observe it. The maximum fluctuation of the ice layer is three quarters of an inch at the point not far from the shore, although the ice The layer seems to be following the shore of the lake.The fluctuations in the center of the lake are probably even greater.Who knows?If our instruments were more sophisticated, we could also measure the fluctuations of the Earth's surface.When I have three feet of the level, two on the shore and one on the ice, and aim and watch with the third foot, the tiniest undulations in the ice can be seen in a tree on the other side of the lake. , into a difference of several feet.When I began to dig the hole for the depth of the water, there were three or four inches of water on top of the ice under the deep snow, which had sunk the ice a few inches; It formed a deep stream, and it lasted for two days to finish, and the ice on all sides was worn away, and the surface of the lake became dry. This is not the main reason, but it is also an important reason; because when the water flows down, it Raised, the ice layer floated.It was as if a hole had been dug under the boat to let the water run out, and when the hole froze again, and then it rained, and finally a new freeze, and the whole lake was covered with fresh smooth ice, Inside the ice there is a beautiful network shape, much like a black spider's web, what you might call a rosette of hockey pucks, formed by the water flowing from all sides to the center.There are also times when there are shallow pools of water in the ice and I can see two shadows of myself, one superimposed on the other, one on the ice and one in the reflection of a tree or hillside.

It was still cold in January, when the ice and snow were still thick and solid, some shrewd landowners had already brought back ice from the village, preparing to freeze summer cold drinks; The mid-month heat and thirst made such an impressive, even pathetic cleverness—and now he was wearing a heavy coat and leather gloves!Besides, there were so many things that he wasn't even prepared for.Maybe he hasn't prepared anything valuable in this world, so that he can serve as a summer cold drink in another world in the future.He chopped and sawed the solid ice, removed the roof of the fish house, bound the ice and the cold with chains like lumber, and drove it away in a cart, passing through the favorable cold air, Transported to the winter cellar, there, let them wait for the hot summer.As they dragged far across the village, they looked like solidified blue sky.These ice diggers were jovial people, full of jest and game, and when I came among them they often begged me to stand below and join them up and down with the big saw.

In the winter of 1846-1847, a hundred people from the North Pole came, and they flocked to this lake that morning, bringing several heavy carts of farm implements, sledges, and rakes. , drill, mower, shovel, saw, rake, each with a two-pronged fork of the kind not described in either the New England Agricultural Journal or the Agricultural Journal. .I do not know whether they came to sow winter rye, or some new seed recently brought from Iceland.Since I didn't see any manure, I judged that they, like me, were probably not ready for deep plowing, thinking that the soil was very deep and had been left alone for a long time.They told me that a peasant gentleman, who did not appear himself, wanted to double his fortune, which, as far as I know, was about half a million; For another gold dollar, he stripped off, yes, stripped off Walden Pond's only coat, no, stripped off its skin, and in such a severe winter!Immediately they went to work, plowing, harrowing, rolling, plowing, in perfect order, as if they were going to make a model farm here: but just as I opened my eyes wide to see what they were going to sow, I A group of people next to it suddenly began to hook the virgin land, and with a jerk, they hooked all the way to the sand or into the water, because this is a very soft land——all the land there is like this, —carried it away in a sledge at once, and then I reckoned they must be digging peat in the bog.They come and go like this every day, and the train screams sharply, as if they came from the Arctic region and returned to the Arctic region. I feel like a flock of snow buntings in the Arctic Ocean.Sometimes, the Indian woman Walden took revenge, and a hired hand, walking behind the procession, slipped inadvertently into a crack in the ground leading to Hades, and only one-ninth of the characters who had been so brave just now remained. Life, his animal warmth is almost gone, it was his luck to be able to hide in my log cabin, and he could not but admit that there is virtue in the furnace; Teeth were broken; sometimes the plow got stuck in the furrow and had to be dug through the ice to get it out.