PROSPECTING FOR GOLD 寻金记

There's a story about the California gold rush that tells of two brothers who sold all they had and went prospecting for gold. They discovered a vein of the shining ore, staked a claim , and proceeded to get down to the serious business of getting the gold ore out of the mine. All went well at first, but then a strange thing happened. The vein of the gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there. The brothers continued to pick away, but without success. Finally they gave up in disgust .

They sold their equipment and claim rights for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Now the man who bought the claim hired an engineer to examine the rock strata of the mine. The engineer advised him to continue digging in the same spot where the former owners had left off. And three feet deeper, the new owner struck gold.

关于加利福尼亚淘金热有这样一个故事，说的是兄弟俩变卖家当去淘金。他们发现了一处金灿灿的矿脉，对外宣布了所有权，然后一门心思要从矿区里找金矿。起初一切都进行得很顺利，可后来发生了一件奇怪的事情。金矿的矿脉不见了！他们挖地三尺也没找到金子。兄弟俩继续挑拣，还是一无所获。最后，他们对整件事感到厌恶，就放弃了。

兄弟俩把设备卖了，把所有权卖了几百美金，坐上了回家的火车。现在的所有权人雇了一位工程师来研究矿区的岩层。工程师建议他就在前任老板放弃的那个地方继续挖掘。新矿主又往深处挖了三英尺，果然挖到了金子。

-vein [veɪn] n. 〈地〉 矿脉

stake a claim 坚持对……的所有权

in disgust 厌恶地

-strata [ˈstrɑːtə] n. 岩层(stratum的复数)

加利福尼亚淘金热 (the California Gold Rush，1848—1855)始于西进运动(Westward Movement)引发的人口迁移。1848年1月，出生于新泽西、后踏上西进征途、定居萨特社区的移民马歇尔在新赫尔维蒂亚的萨特社区(Sutter's Mill)发现了金矿，此消息一出，美国沸腾，世界震撼。首当其冲受到冲击的是临近的圣弗朗西斯科，当地企业停业，海员弃船，工人扔下工具，传教士离开了布道所，成千上万的淘金者疯狂涌向金矿发源地。这股热潮一直向北席卷到俄勒冈，向南冲击到墨西哥。一时间，加利福尼亚人口猛增，附近新城镇很快成为国际性大都市。