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Sea-water is salty, and people who live near the sea can get salt by filling shallow ponds with sea-water in summer, when the sun is strong.
海水里面是有鹽的。夏天日照很強烈的時候, 住在海邊的人, 只要把淺淺的池子灌滿海水, 就能得到鹽。很快, 太陽的熱量會烤干海水, 鹽就留在了池塘底部。
Soon the heat of the sun dries up the water, and the solid salt is left at the bottom of the pond. In some places rock-salt is dug in mines, just as we dig our coal. These mines are called salt-mines. The rock-salt is first dissolved in water, and then this water is boiled, and the crystals of salt are left behind. This is to make the salt clean and white.
有些地方, 巖鹽是從礦里挖出來的, 就像從煤礦里挖煤一樣。這種礦, 叫做“鹽礦”。人們先把巖鹽溶解在水里, 然后把水燒干, 留下了鹽的晶體。這就讓鹽變得又潔白又干凈。
Salt is rubbed over meat and fish to keep them from going bad or rotting. Fresh meat goes bad because very tiny living things, called germs, feed on it. But these tiny germs cannot bear the salt—they cannot live in it. Meat soaked in brine or well rubbed with salt will keep good for a long time.
人們把鹽抹在肉和魚上, 不讓肉和魚變質腐爛。鮮肉會腐爛, 是因為有一些很小的, 名叫“細菌”的生物要吃肉。但這些微小的細菌受不了鹽, 在有鹽的環(huán)境里不能生存。把肉類泡在鹵水里面, 或者均勻地涂上鹽, 就可以保存很長的時間。
Horses and cattle like salt, and thrive best when they get plenty of it. Farmers often mix salt with their haywhen they are piling it up in stacks for the winter. Sometimes they put a lump of rock-salt in their horse's manger, that he may lick it whenever he likes.
牛馬是很喜歡吃鹽的, 吃足夠的鹽就能長得很壯。農民在畜欄里堆上干草, 給它們準備過冬的時候, 經常在干草里放上鹽。有時候, 農民還會在馬槽里放上一大塊巖鹽, 牛馬什么時候想吃, 都可以舔。
Salt springs and pools are often found in the plains of America and other countries, and wild animals will go many miles to these pools, to drink the salt water, or even to lick the ground, if the spring has run dry.
美國平原上, 還有其他國家, 經常能找到含鹽的泉水和池塘。野生動物會走上很多英里的路, 來到鹽池旁邊喝鹽水。如果泉水枯干了, 這些動物可能還會舔地上的土呢！
