Walden [?w?ld?n] (Issue 197) 16. The Pond in Winter(6) [7] A factory-owner, hearing what depth I had found, thought that it could not be true, for, judging from his acquaintance with dams, sand would not lie at so steep an angle. But the deepest ponds are not so deep in proportion to their area as most suppose, and, if drained, would not leave very remarkable valleys. They are not like cups between the hills; for this one, which is so unusually deep for its area, appears in a vertical section through its centre not deeper than a shallow plate. Most ponds, emptied, would leave a meadow no more hollow['h?l??] than we frequently[?fri?kw?nt] see. William Gilpin, who is so admirable in all that relates to landscapes, and usually so correct, standing at the head of Loch Fyne, in Scotland, which he describes as "a bay of salt water, sixty or seventy fathoms deep, four miles in breadth," and about fifty miles long, surrounded by mountains, observes, "If we could have seen it immediately after the diluvian[d?'lu?v??n] crash, or whatever convulsion of nature occasioned it, before the waters gushed[g??] in, what a horrid chasm[?k?z?m] must it have appeared! "So high as heaved the tumid[?tju?m?d] hills, so low Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep, Capacious[k??pe???s] bed of waters." But if, using the shortest diameter of Loch[l?x] Fyne, we apply these proportions to Walden, which, as we have seen, appears already in a vertical section only like a shallow plate, it will appear four times as shallow. So much for the increased horrors of the chasm of Loch Fyne when emptied. No doubt many a smiling valley with its stretching cornfields occupies exactly such a "horrid chasm," from which the waters have receded, though it requires the insight and the far sight of the geologist to convince the unsuspecting inhabitants of this fact. Often an inquisitive eye may detect the shores of a primitive lake in the low horizon hills, and no subsequent elevation of the plain has been necessary to conceal their history. But it is easiest, as they who work on the highways know, to find the hollows by the puddles after a shower['?a??(r)]. The amount of it is, the imagination give it the least license[?la?sns], dives deeper and soars higher than Nature goes. So, probably, the depth of the ocean will be found to be very inconsiderable compared with its breadth[bredθ]. 一個(gè)工廠主聽說了我發(fā)現(xiàn)的深度，想著不可能是真的，因?yàn)?，根?jù)他對(duì)那些水壩的熟悉，沙子不可能堆積在這么陡的角度。但是最深的湖在大多數(shù)人眼中對(duì)他們面積都是不成比例地深，而且，如果淘干了，也不會(huì)留下非常出名的深谷，他們可不像是群山之間的杯子；因?yàn)檫@一個(gè)，對(duì)它的面積來說是如此異乎尋常地深，通過其中心在橫斷面里看上去就深不過一個(gè)淺盤。大多數(shù)的湖干了會(huì)留下一個(gè)草地，比我們平常經(jīng)常見到的空曠不到哪里去。威廉?吉爾朋，他對(duì)于牽扯到風(fēng)景的一切是如此的欽佩，通常也是如此正確，站在蘇格蘭法恩灣的頂端，把它描述成“一灣咸水，六十到七十英尋深，四英里寬，”而且約五十英里長(zhǎng)，群山環(huán)抱，觀察到，“如果我們?cè)诤榉e層崩潰或任何自然的痙攣后立刻看到它，在水涌入以前，它看起來必定像多么可怕的一道裂口！ “如此高就像舉起腫脹的山 落下而成寬闊深邃一個(gè)空谷底， 浩渺[miǎo]的水床?！? 【原注：引自威廉.吉爾平的《蘇格蘭高地考察記》】 但是，如果用法恩灣最短的直徑，這些比例到瓦爾登湖上來，那個(gè)我們已經(jīng)看到，從一個(gè)橫切面看上去像一個(gè)淺盤，將會(huì)四倍地更淺。當(dāng)水被淘空了比起法恩灣的裂口也是四倍的可怕。毫無疑問很多被延伸的玉米田占據(jù)的微笑的山谷，恰恰就是一些這“可怕的裂口”，從那里大水已經(jīng)退去，雖然要有洞察力和遠(yuǎn)見的地理學(xué)家去說服那些毫無察覺的居民這一事實(shí)。經(jīng)常一只好奇的眼睛會(huì)在低矮地平線那些小山上，探知一個(gè)原始湖的岸；而且沒有平原后續(xù)海拔的演變，巧妙地掩蓋了它們的歷史。但是那些在公路上工作過的人們知道，最容易的就是在一場(chǎng)雨后憑水的漩渦發(fā)現(xiàn)那些凹陷處。它的數(shù)量加起來就是，想象力給予最少的許可證，比大自然的行進(jìn)潛得更深和飄飛得更高。于是，也許將會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)大洋的深度比起它的闊度非常地微不足道。