万物简史 第607期:冰河时代(4)

Local peasants, uncontaminated by scientific orthodoxy, knew better, however. The naturalist¹ Jean de Charpentier told the story of how in 1834 he was walking along a country lane with a Swiss woodcutter when they got to talking about the rocks along the roadside. The woodcutter matter-of-factly told him that the boulders² had come from the Grimsel, a zone of granite³ some distance away. "When I asked him how he thought that these stones had reached their location, he answered without hesitation⁴: 'The Grimsel glacier⁵ transported them on both sides of the valley, because that glacier extended in the past as far as the town of Bern.' "

相反，当地那些没有受科学界正统学说影响的农民知道得更多。瑞士博物学家让·德·夏庞蒂埃讲述了这样一个故事：1834年，他和一位瑞士伐木工人行走在一条乡间小道上，他们随便聊起路边那些随处可见的大石块。伐木工人非常直率地告诉他，这些岩石来自离那里很远的格里姆瑟尔地区。“当我问他这些岩石是怎样来到他所在的地区时，他毫不犹豫地回答说：‘格里姆瑟尔冰川沿着山谷把它们带到了这里，因为那次冰川曾一度延伸到了伯尔尼镇。’”

Charpentier was delighted. He had come to such a view himself, but when he raised the notion at scientific gatherings⁶, it was dismissed. One of Charpentier's closest friends was another Swiss naturalist, Louis Agassiz, who after some initial skepticism came to embrace, and eventually all but appropriate, the theory.

夏庞蒂埃不禁大喜过望，因为他本人早已得出这样的看法。可是当他在一次科学集会上提出这一观点时，却遭到人们的冷遇。夏庞蒂埃最好的朋友，一位名叫路易斯·阿加西斯的瑞士博物学家起初对这一观点持怀疑态度，之后又慢慢地接受，最后是全力支持这个理论。

Agassiz had studied under Cuvier in Paris and now held the post of Professor of Natural History at the College of Neuchatel in Switzerland. Another friend of Agassiz's, a botanist⁷ named Karl Schimper, was actually the first to coin the term ice age (in German Eiszeit), in 1837, and to propose that there was good evidence to show that ice had once lain heavily across not just the Swiss Alps, but over much of Europe, Asia, and North America. It was a radical⁸ notion.

阿加西斯曾在巴黎师从居维叶，当时担任瑞士纳沙泰尔州立学院自然史教授。他的另一位名叫卡尔·希姆帕尔的朋友是一位植物学家。事实上，正是希姆帕尔于1837年首先创造出了冰河时代（德语词Eizeit）这个词。他认为，有许多证据表明冰盖不仅厚厚地覆盖瑞士阿尔卑斯山，而且覆盖了欧洲、亚洲和北美洲的大片地区。这是一个极其激进的观点。

1 naturalist   

n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者)

参考例句：

• He was a printer by trade and naturalist by avocation.他从事印刷业，同时是个博物学爱好者。
• The naturalist told us many stories about birds.博物学家给我们讲述了许多有关鸟儿的故事。

2 boulders   

n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾

参考例句：

• Seals basked on boulders in a flat calm. 海面风平浪静，海豹在巨石上晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The river takes a headlong plunge into a maelstrom of rocks and boulders. 河水急流而下，入一个漂砾的漩涡中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。

4 hesitation   

n.犹豫，踌躇

参考例句：

• After a long hesitation, he told the truth at last.踌躇了半天，他终于直说了。
• There was a certain hesitation in her manner.她的态度有些犹豫不决。

5 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

6 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

7 botanist   

n.植物学家

参考例句：

• The botanist introduced a new species of plant to the region.那位植物学家向该地区引入了一种新植物。
• I had never talked with a botanist before,and I found him fascinating.我从没有接触过植物学那一类的学者，我觉得他说话极有吸引力。

8 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。