A great many people take trips on these big lake boats just as they do on the ocean—for pleasure; 很多人乘着大湖上的船只游玩，就像出海度假一样。 

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. 但大量船只穿梭往来主要是为了做生意，而不是游玩。

The business is carrying things, which we call freight. It is much cheaper to send things by ship than by train, 所谓生意就是运输东西，也就是我们所说的货运。用船运东西要比火车便宜多了，

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. 因为一艘大船装的东西比很多列火车装的都多，而且船不需要像火车那样在陆地和轨道上行驶。

When we send freight by train we also call that “shipping,” which seems strange.  当我们用火车运货的时候，也使用“shipping”这个词，这似乎很奇怪。

Everyone would ship by ship instead of by train if he could, because it is so much cheaper, but of course you have to be near the water to ship by ship. 只要能用船人们就会选择船运，而不是火车，因为比火车便宜多了，当然是你附近必须有可以船运的水域才行。

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. 幸运的是，美国的48州中有8个州在五大湖边，尽管其中几个州的临湖地面积很小。 

Michigan has the most frontage, by far. It fronts on four of the Great Lakes, all except Lake Ontario. 密歇根州有着最长的湖岸线，除了安大略湖，它滨临其他四大湖。

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. 还记得波托马克河的印第安人吧？他们很会做生意，划着独木舟在河上往返上下，用自己已有的东西去换自己想要的东西。

The Indians of the Great Lakes used to do the same thing. 五大湖区的印第安人以前也这么做。

Nowadays the white man’s huge ships—thousands of times bigger than the Indians’ canoes made out of a single log—do the trading. 现在白人巨大的轮船——比印第安人用一根木头做成的独木舟要大几千倍——在做买卖。

They carry huge loads of freight from one end of the Great Lakes to the other,  它们装载着大量的货物从湖区的一端运到另一端，

unloading at different places along the way the things that people want, and loading up with other freight to go back. 沿途在不同的地方卸下人们需要的货物，然后装上其他货物返回。

Most of the ships start at the far end of Lake Superior at a place called Duluth. 大多数的船只都从苏必利尔湖远端一个叫做德卢斯的地方起航。

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. 火车从德卢斯以西的小麦产地运来小麦，从附近的矿区运来铁矿。

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,  湖岸边巨大的机器用它大大的铁手托起整车厢的小麦和矿石然后倒入等待装载的轮船里，

as you would lift a toy car of your toy train and empty its load with two fingers. 就像你会用两根指头举起你的玩具火车的车厢把里面的货物倒掉一样。

Other ships collect copper ore and also iron from that part of Michigan which is on Lake Superior.  其他的轮船在密歇根州的苏必利尔湖区装上铜矿和钢铁。

They then carry their loads through the Soo Canal and unload at a place called Detroit, between Lake Huron and Lake Erie,  然后这些轮船载着货物经过苏运河，在一个位于休伦湖和伊利湖之间叫做底特律的地方卸下货物，

or carry their iron ore to Cleveland and Buffalo on Lake Erie. Most of the ships do not go past Niagara Falls. 或者把铁矿运到克利夫兰和伊利湖边的布法罗。大部分船并不经过尼亚加拉瀑布。

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. 这些船卸完货再装上在新英格兰或者美国东部生产的东西、或者是宾夕法尼亚产的煤矿，返回德卢斯。

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. 但是到了冬天，湖上所有的船运贸易都不得不停下来，因为这个地区冬天非常寒冷，湖水结冰，轮船无法航行。