A desert, in fact, is only a place where the weather is always and uniformly fine. The sand is there merely as what the logicians call, in their cheerful way, 'a separable accident'; the essential of a desert, as such, is the absence of vegetation, due to drought. The barometer13 in those happy, too happy, regions, always stands at Set Fair. At least, it would, if barometers14 commonly grew in the desert, where, however, in the present condition of science, they are rarely found. It is this dryness of the air, and this alone, that makes a desert; all the rest, like the camels, the sphinx, the skeleton, and the pyramid, is only thrown in to complete the picture.
Now the first question that occurs to the inquiring mind—which is but a graceful15 periphrasis for the present writer—when it comes to examine in detail the peculiarities17 of deserts is just this: Why are there places on the earth's surface on which rain never falls? What makes it so uncommonly18 dry in Sahara when it's so unpleasantly wet and so unnecessarily foggy in this realm of England? And the obvious answer is, of course, that deserts exist only in those parts of the world where the run of mountain ranges, prevalent winds, and ocean currents conspire19 to render the average rainfall as small as possible. But, strangely enough, there is a large irregular belt of the great eastern continent where these peculiar16 conditions occur in an almost unbroken line for thousands of miles together, from the west coast of Africa to the borders of China: and it is in this belt that all the best known deserts of the world are actually situated. In one place it is the Atlas20 and the Kong mountains (now don't pretend, as David Copperfield's aunt would have said, you don't know the Kong mountains); at another place it is the Arabian coast range, Lebanon, and the Beluchi hills; at a third, it is the Himalayas and the Chinese heights that intercept21 and precipitate22 all the moisture from the clouds. But, from whatever variety of local causes it may arise, the fact still remains23 the same, that all the great deserts run in this long, almost unbroken series, beginning with the greater and the smaller Sahara, continuing in the Libyan and Egyptian desert, spreading on through the larger part of Arabia, reappearing to the north as the Syrian desert, and to the east as the desert of Rajputana (the Great Indian Desert of the Anglo-Indian mind), while further east again the long line terminates in the desert of Gobi on the Chinese frontier.
In other parts of the world, deserts are less frequent. The peculiar combination of circumstances which goes to produce them does not elsewhere occur over any vast area, on so large a scale. Still, there is one region in western America where the necessary conditions are found to perfection. The high snow-clad peaks of the Rocky Mountains on the one side check and condense all the moisture that comes from the Atlantic; the Sierra Nevada and the Wahsatch range on the other, running parallel with them to the west, check and condense all the moisture that comes from the Pacific coast. In between these two great lines lies the dry and almost rainless district known to the ambitious western mind as the Great American Desert, enclosing in its midst that slowly evaporating inland sea, the Great Salt Lake, a last relic24 of some extinct chain of mighty25 waters once comparable to Superior, Erie, and Ontario. In Mexico, again, where the twin ranges draw closer together, desert conditions once more supervene. But it is in central Australia that the causes which lead to the desert state are, perhaps on the whole, best exemplified. There, ranges of high mountains extend almost all round the coasts, and so completely intercept the rainfall which ought to fertilise the great central plain that the rivers are almost all short and local, and one thirsty waste spreads for miles and miles together over the whole unexplored interior of the continent.
But why are deserts rocky and sandy? Why aren't they covered, like the rest of the world, with earth, soil, mould, or dust? One can see plainly enough why there should be little or no vegetation where no rain falls, but one can't see quite so easily why there should be only sand and rock instead of arid26 clay-field.
Well, the answer is that without vegetation there is no such thing as soil on earth anywhere. The top layer of the land in all ordinary and well-behaved countries is composed entirely27 of vegetable mould, the decaying remains of innumerable generations of weeds and grasses. Earth to earth is the rule of nature. Soil, in fact, consists entirely of dead leaves. And where there are no leaves to die and decay, there can be no mould or soil to speak of. Darwin showed, indeed, in his last great book, that we owe the whole earthy covering of our hills and plains almost entirely to the perennial28 exertions29 of that friend of the farmers, the harmless, necessary earthworm. Year after year the silent worker is busy every night pulling down leaves through his tunnelled burrow30 into his underground nest, and there converting them by means of his castings into the black mould which produces, in the end, for lordly man, all his cultivable fields and pasture-lands and meadows. Where there are no leaves and no earth-worms, therefore, there can be no soil; and under those circumstances we get what we familiarly know as a desert.
The normal course of events where new land rises above the sea is something like this, as oceanic isles31 have sufficiently32 demonstrated. The rock when it first emerges from the water rises bare and rugged33 like a sea-cliff; no living thing, animal or vegetable, is harboured anywhere on its naked surface. In time, however, as rain falls upon its jutting34 peaks and barren pinnacles35, disintegration36 sets in, or, to speak plainer English, the rock crumbles37; and soon streams wash down tiny deposits of sand and mud thus produced into the valleys and hollows of the upheaved area. At the same time lichens39 begin to spring in yellow patches upon the bare face of the rock, and feathery ferns, whose spores40 have been wafted41 by the wind, or carried by the waves, or borne on the feet of unconscious birds, sprout42 here and there from the clefts43 and crannies. These, as they die and decay, in turn form a thin layer of vegetable mould, the first beginning of a local soil, in which the trusty earthworm (imported in the egg on driftwood or floating weeds) straightway sets to work to burrow, and which he rapidly increases by his constant labour. On the soil thus deposited, flowering plants and trees can soon root themselves, as fast as seeds, nuts or fruits are wafted to the island by various accidents from surrounding countries. The new land thrown up by the great eruption44 of Krakatoa has in this way already clothed itself from head to foot with a luxuriant sheet of ferns, mosses45, and other vegetation.
First soil, then plant and animal life, are thus in the last resort wholly dependent for their existence on the amount of rainfall. But in deserts, where rain seldom or never falls (except by accident) the first term in this series is altogether wanting. There can be no rivers, brooks46 or streams to wash down beds of alluvial deposit from the mountains to the valleys. Denudation47 (the term, though rather awful, is not an improper48 one) must therefore take a different turn. Practically speaking, there is no water action; the work is all done by sun and wind. Under these circumstances, the rocks crumble38 away very slowly by mere12 exposure into small fragments, which the wind knocks off and blows about the surface, forming sand or dust of them in all convenient hollows. The frequent currents, produced by the heated air that lies upon the basking49 layer of sand, continually keep the surface agitated51, and so blow about the sand and grind one piece against the other till it becomes ever finer and finer. Thus for the most part the hollows or valleys of deserts are filled by plains of bare sand, while their higher portions consist rather of barren, rocky mountains or table-land.
The effect upon whatever animal or vegetable life can manage here and there to survive under such circumstances is very peculiar. Deserts are the most exacting52 of all known environments, and they compel their inhabitants with profound imperiousness to knuckle53 under to their prejudices and preconceptions in ten thousand particulars.
To begin with, all the smaller denizens54 of the desert—whether butterflies, beetles55, birds, or lizards58—must be quite uniformly isabelline or sand-coloured. This universal determination of the desert-haunting creatures to fall in with the fashion and to harmonise with their surroundings adds considerably59 to the painfully monotonous effect of desert scenery. A green plant, a blue butterfly, a red and yellow bird, a black or bronze-coloured beetle56 or lizard57 would improve the artistic aspect of the desert not a little. But no; the animals will hear nothing of such gaudy60 hues61; with Quaker uniformity they will clothe themselves in dove-colour; they will all wear a sandy pepper-and-salt with as great unanimity63 as the ladies of the Court (on receipt of orders) wear Court mourning for the late lamented64 King of the Tongataboo Islands.
In reality, this universal sombre tint65 of desert animals is a beautiful example of the imperious working of our modern Deus ex machina, natural selection. The more uniform in hue62 is the environment of any particular region, the more uniform in hue must be all its inhabitants. In the arctic snows, for example, we find this principle pushed to its furthest logical conclusion. There, everything is and must be white—hares, foxes, and ptarmigans alike; and the reason is obvious—there can be no exception. Any brown or black or reddish animal who ventured north would at once render himself unpleasantly conspicuous66 in the midst of the uniform arctic whiteness. If he were a brown hare, for example, the foxes and bears and birds of prey67 of the district would spot him at once on the white fields, and pounce68 down upon him forthwith on his first appearance. That hare would leave no similar descendants to continue the race of brown hares in arctic regions after him. Or, suppose, on the other hand, it were a brown fox who invaded the domain69 of eternal snow. All the hares and ptarmigans of his new district would behold70 him coming from afar and keep well out of his way, while he, poor creature, would never be able to spot them at all among the white snow-fields. He would starve for want of prey, at the very time when the white fox, his neighbour, was stealing unperceived with stealthy tread upon the hares and ptarmigans. In this way, from generation to generation of arctic animals, the blacker or browner have been constantly weeded out, and the greyer and whiter have been constantly encouraged, till now all arctic animals alike are as spotlessly snowy as the snow around them.
In the desert much the same causes operate, in a slightly different way, in favour of a general greyness or brownness as against pronounced shades of black, white, red, green, or yellow. Desert animals, like intense South Kensington, go in only for neutral tints71. In proportion as each individual approaches in hue to the sand about it will it succeed in life in avoiding its enemies or in creeping upon its prey, according to circumstances. In proportion as it presents a strikingly vivid or distinct appearance among the surrounding sand will it make itself a sure mark for its watchful72 foes73, if it happen to be an unprotected skulker74, or will it be seen beforehand and avoided by its prey, if it happen to be a predatory hunting or insect-eating beast. Hence on the sandy desert all species alike are uniformly sand-coloured. Spotty lizards bask50 on spotty sands, keeping a sharp look-out for spotty butterflies and spotty beetles, only to be themselves spotted75 and devoured76 in turn by equally spotty birds, or snakes, or tortoises. All nature seems to have gone into half-mourning together, or, converted by a passing Puritan missionary77, to have clad itself incontinently in grey and fawn-colour.
Even the larger beasts that haunt the desert take their tone not a little from their sandy surroundings. You have only to compare the desert-haunting lion with the other great cats to see at once the reason for his peculiar uniform. The tigers and other tropical jungle-cats have their coats arranged in vertical78 stripes of black and yellow, which, though you would hardly believe it unless you saw them in their native nullahs (good word 'nullah,' gives a convincing Indian tone to a narrative79 of adventure), harmonise marvellously with the lights and shades of the bamboos and cane-brakes through whose depths the tiger moves so noiselessly.
Looking into the gloom of a tangled80 jungle, it is almost impossible to pick out the beast from the yellow stems and dark shadows in which it hides, save by the baleful gleam of those wicked eyes, catching81 the light for one second as they turn wistfully and bloodthirstily towards the approaching stranger. The jaguar82, oncelot, leopard83, and other tree-cats, on the other hand, are dappled or spotted—a type of coloration which exactly harmonises with the light and shade of the round sun-spots seen through the foliage84 of a tropical forest. They, too, are almost indistinguishable from the trees overhead as they creep along cautiously on the trunks and branches. But spots or stripes would at once betray the crouching85 lion among the bare rocks or desert sands; and therefore the lion is approximately sand-coloured. Seen in a cage at the Zoo, the British lion is a very conspicuous animal indeed; but spread at full length on a sandy patch or among bare yellow rocks under the Saharan sun, you may walk into his mouth before you are even aware of his august existence.
The three other great desert beasts of Asia or Africa—the ostrich86, the giraffe, and the camel—are less protectively coloured, for various reasons. Giraffes and ostriches87 go in herds89; they trust for safety mainly to their swiftness of foot, and, when driven to bay, like most gregarious90 animals, they make common cause against the ill-advised intruder. In such cases it is often well, for the sake of stragglers, that the herd88 should be readily distinguished91 at a distance; and it is to insure this advantage, I believe, that giraffes have acquired their strongly marked spots, as zebras have acquired their distinctive92 stripes, and hy?nas their similarly banded or dappled coats. One must always remember that disguise may be carried a trifle too far, and that recognisability in the parents often gives the young and giddy a point in their favour. For example, it seems certain that the general grey-brown tint of European rabbits serves to render them indistinguishable in a field of bracken, stubble, or dry grass. How hard it is, either for man or hawk93, to pick out rabbits so long as they sit still, in an English meadow! But as soon as they begin to run towards their burrows94 the white patch by their tails inevitably95 betrays them; and this betrayal seems at first sight like a failure of adaptation. Certainly many a rabbit must be spotted and shot, or killed by birds of prey, solely96 on account of that tell-tale white patch as he makes for his shelter. Nevertheless, when we come to look closer, we can see, as Mr. Wallace acutely suggests, that the tell-tale patch has its function also. On the first alarm the parent rabbits take to their heels at once, and run at any untoward97 sight or sound toward the safety of the burrow. The white patch and the hoisted98 tail act as a danger-signal to the little bunnies, and direct them which way to escape the threatened misfortune. The young ones take the hint at once and follow their leader. Thus what may be sometimes a disadvantage to the individual animal becomes in the long run of incalculable benefit to the entire community.
It is interesting to note, too, how much alike in build and gait are these three thoroughbred desert roamers, the giraffe, the ostrich, and the camel or dromedary. In their long legs, their stalking march, their tall necks, and their ungainly appearance they all betoken99 their common adaptation to the needs and demands of a special environment. Since food is scarce and shelter rare, they have to run about much over large spaces in search of a livelihood100 or to escape their enemies. Then the burning nature of the sand as well as the need for speed compels them to have long legs which in turn necessitate101 equally long necks, if they are to reach the ground or the trees overhead for food and drink. Their feet have to be soft and padded to enable them to run over the sand with ease; and hard horny patches must protect their knees and all other portions of the body liable to touch the sweltering surface when they lie down to rest themselves. Finally, they can all endure thirst for long periods together; and the camel, the most inveterate102 desert-haunter of the trio, is even provided with a special stomach to take in water for several days at a stretch, besides having a peculiarly tough skin in which perspiration103 is reduced to a minimum. He carries his own water-supply internally, and wastes as little of it by the way as possible.
What the camel is among animals that is the cactus104 among plants—the most confirmed and specialised of desert-haunting organisms. It has been wholly developed in, by, and for the desert. I don't mean merely to say that cactuses resemble camels because they are clumsy, ungainly, awkward, and paradoxical; that would be a point of view almost as far beneath the dignity of science (which in spite of occasional lapses105 into the sin of levity106 I endeavour as a rule piously107 to uphold) as the old and fallacious reason 'because there's a B in both.' But cactuses, like camels, take in their water supply whenever they can get it, and never waste any of it on the way by needless evaporation108. As they form the perfect central type of desert vegetation, and are also familiar plants to everyone, they may be taken as a good illustrative example of the effect that desert conditions inevitably produce upon vegetable evolution.
Quaint109, shapeless, succulent, jointed110, the cactuses look at first sight as if they were all leaves, and had no stem or trunk worth mentioning. Of course, therefore, the exact opposite is really the case; for, as a late lamented poet has assured us in mournful numbers, things (generally speaking) are not what they seem. The true truth about the cactuses runs just the other way; they are all stem and no leaves; what look like leaves being really joints111 of the trunk or branches, and the foliage being all dwarfed112 and stunted113 into the prickly hairs that dot and encumber114 the surface. All plants of very arid soils—for example, our common English stonecrops—tend to be thick, jointed, and succulent; the distinction between stem and leaves tends to disappear; and the whole weed, accustomed at times to long drought, acquires the habit of drinking in water greedily at its rootlets after every rain, and storing it away for future use in its thick, sponge-like, and water-tight tissues. To prevent undue115 evaporation, the surface also is covered with a thick, shiny skin—a sort of vegetable macintosh, which effectually checks all unnecessary transpiration116. Of this desert type, then, the cactus is the furthest possible term. It has no flat leaves with expanded blades, to wither117 and die in the scorching118 desert air; but in their stead the thick and jointed stems do the same work—absorb carbon from the carbonic acid of the air, and store up water in the driest of seasons. Then, to repel119 the attacks of herbivores, who would gladly get at the juicy morsel120 if they could, the foliage has been turned into sharp defensive121 spines122 and prickles. The cactus is tenacious123 of life to a wonderful degree; and for reproduction it trusts not merely to its brilliant flowers, fertilised for the most part by desert moths124 or butterflies, and to its juicy fruit, of which the common prickly pear is a familiar instance, but it has the special property of springing afresh from any stray bit or fragment of the stem that happens to fall upon the dry ground anywhere.
True cactuses (in the native state) are confined to America; but the unhappy naturalist125 who ventures to say so in mixed society is sure to get sat upon (without due cause) by numberless people who have seen 'the cactus' wild all the world over. For one thing, the prickly pear and a few other common American species, have been naturalised and run wild throughout North Africa, the Mediterranean126 shores, and a great part of India, Arabia, and Persia. But what is more interesting and more confusing still, other desert plants which are not cactuses, living in South Africa, Sind, Rajputana, and elsewhere unspecified, have been driven by the nature of their circumstances and the dryness of the soil to adopt precisely127 the same tactics, and therefore unconsciously to mimic128 or imitate the cactus tribe in the minutest details of their personal appearance. Most of these fallacious pseudo-cactuses are really spurges or euphorbias by family. They resemble the true Mexican type in externals only; that is to say, their stems are thick, jointed, and leaf-like, and they grow with clumsy and awkward angularity; but in the flower, fruit, seed, and in short in all structural129 peculiarities whatsoever130, they differ utterly131 from the genuine cactus, and closely resemble all their spurge relations. Adaptive likenesses of this sort, due to mere stress of local conditions, have no more weight as indications of real relationship than the wings of the bat or the nippers of the seal, which don't make the one into a skylark, or the other into a mackerel.
In Sahara, on the other hand, the prevailing132 type of vegetation (wherever there is any) belongs to the kind playfully described by Sir Lambert Playfair as 'salsolaceous,' that is to say, in plainer English, it consists of plants like the glass-wort and the kali-weed, which are commonly burnt to make soda133. These fleshy weeds resemble the cactuses in being succulent and thick-skinned but they differ from them in their curious ability to live upon very salt and soda-laden water. All through the great African desert region, in fact, most of the water is more or less brackish134; 'bitter lakes' are common, and gypsum often covers the ground over immense areas. These districts occupy the beds of vast ancient lakes, now almost dry, of which the existing chotts, or very salt pools, are the last shrunken and evanescent relics135.
And this point about the water brings me at last to a cardinal136 fact in the constitution of deserts which is almost always utterly misconceived in Europe. Most people at home picture the desert to themselves as wholly dead, flat, and sandy. To talk about the fauna137 and flora138 of Sahara sounds in their ears like self-contradictory nonsense. But, as a matter of fact, that uniform and lifeless desert of the popular fancy exists only in those sister arts that George II.—good, practical man—so heartily139 despised, 'boetry and bainting.' The desert of real life, though less impressive, is far more varied140. It has its ups and downs, its hills and valleys. It has its sandy plains and its rocky ridges141. It has its lakes and ponds, and even its rivers. It has its plants and animals, its oases142 and palm-groves. In short, like everything else on earth, it's a good deal more complex than people imagine.
One may take Sahara as a very good example of the actual desert of physical geography, in contradistinction to the level and lifeless desert that stretches like the sea over illimitable spaces in verse or canvas. And here, I fear, I am going to dispel143 another common and cherished illusion. It is my fate to be an iconoclast144, and perhaps long practice has made me rather like the trade than otherwise. A popular belief exists all over Europe that the late M. Roudaire—that De Lesseps who never quite 'came off'—proposed to cut a canal from the Mediterranean into the heart of Africa, which was intended, in the stereotyped145 phrase of journalism146, to 'flood Sahara,' and convert the desert into an inland sea. He might almost as well have talked of cutting a canal from Brighton to the Devil's Dyke147 and 'submerging England,' as the devil wished to do in the old legend. As a matter of fact, good, practical M. Roudaire, sound engineer that he was, never even dreamt of anything so chimerical148. What he did really propose was something far milder and simpler in its way, but, as his scheme has given rise to the absurd notion that Sahara as a whole lies below sea-level, it may be worth while briefly149 to explain what it was he really thought of doing.
Some sixty miles south of Biskra, the most fashionable resort in the Algerian Sahara, there is a deep depression two hundred and fifty miles long, partly occupied by three salt lakes of the kind so common over the whole dried-up Saharan area. These three lakes, shrunken remnants of much larger sheets, lie below the level of the Mediterranean, but they are separated from it, and from one another, by upland ranges which rise considerably above the sea line. What M. Roudaire proposed to do was to cut canals through these three barriers, and flood the basins of the salt lakes. The result would have been, not as is commonly said to submerge Sahara, nor even to form anything worth seriously describing as 'an inland sea,' but to substitute three larger salt lakes for the existing three smaller ones. The area so flooded, however, would bear to the whole area of Sahara something like the same proportion that Windsor Park bears to the entire surface of England. This is the true truth about that stupendous undertaking150, which is to create a new Mediterranean in the midst of the Dark Continent, and to modify the climate of Northern Europe to something like the condition of the Glacial Epoch151. A new Dead Sea would be much nearer the mark, and the only way Northern Europe would feel the change, if it felt it at all, would be in a slight fall in the price of dates in the wholesale152 market.
No, Sahara as a whole is not below sea-level; it is not the dry bed of a recent ocean; and it is not as flat as the proverbial pancake all over. Part of it, indeed, is very mountainous, and all of it is more or less varied in level. The Upper Sahara consists of a rocky plateau, rising at times into considerable peaks; the Lower, to which it descends153 by a steep slope, is 'a vast depression of clay and sand,' but still for the most part standing154 high above sea-level. No portion of the Upper Sahara is less than 1,300 feet high—a good deal higher than Dartmoor or Derbyshire. Most of the Lower reaches from two to three hundred feet—quite as elevated as Essex or Leicester. The few spots below sea-level consist of the beds of ancient lakes, now much shrunk by evaporation, owing to the present rainless condition of the country; the soil around these is deep in gypsum, and the water itself is considerably salter than the sea. That, however, is always the case with freshwater lakes in their last dotage155, as American geologists156 have amply proved in the case of the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Moving sand undoubtedly157 covers a large space in both divisions of the desert, but according to Sir Lambert Playfair, our best modern authority on the subject, it occupies not more than one-third part of the entire Algerian Sahara. Elsewhere rock, clay, and muddy lake are the prevailing features, interspersed158 with not infrequent date-groves and villages, the product of artesian wells, or excavated159 spaces, or river oases. Even Sahara, in short, to give it its due, is not by any means so black as it's painted.
The End
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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bilious
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| adj.胆汁过多的；易怒的 | |
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bleaching
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| 漂白法，漂白 | |
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theatrical
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preponderates
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| v.超过，胜过( preponderate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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alluvial
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obtrusive
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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barometer
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| n.气压表，睛雨表，反应指标 | |
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barometers
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| 气压计，晴雨表( barometer的名词复数 ) | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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peculiarities
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uncommonly
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conspire
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atlas
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intercept
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| vt.拦截，截住，截击 | |
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precipitate
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remains
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relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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mighty
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arid
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entirely
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perennial
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exertions
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burrow
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| vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞 | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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32
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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33
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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35
pinnacles
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| 顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 )； 顶点； 尖顶； 小尖塔 | |
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36
disintegration
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| n.分散，解体 | |
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37
crumbles
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| 酥皮水果甜点( crumble的名词复数 ) | |
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38
crumble
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| vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁 | |
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lichens
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| n.地衣( lichen的名词复数 ) | |
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40
spores
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| n.（细菌、苔藓、蕨类植物）孢子( spore的名词复数 )v.（细菌、苔藓、蕨类植物）孢子( spore的第三人称单数 ) | |
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wafted
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| v.吹送，飘送，（使）浮动( waft的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
sprout
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| n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条 | |
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43
clefts
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| n.裂缝( cleft的名词复数 )；裂口；cleave的过去式和过去分词；进退维谷 | |
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44
eruption
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| n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作 | |
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45
mosses
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| n. 藓类, 苔藓植物 名词moss的复数形式 | |
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46
brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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47
denudation
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| n.剥下；裸露；滥伐；剥蚀 | |
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48
improper
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| adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的 | |
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49
basking
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| v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽 | |
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50
bask
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| vt.取暖，晒太阳，沐浴于 | |
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51
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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52
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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53
knuckle
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| n.指节；vi.开始努力工作；屈服，认输 | |
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54
denizens
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| n.居民，住户( denizen的名词复数 ) | |
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55
beetles
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| n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 ) | |
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56
beetle
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| n.甲虫，近视眼的人 | |
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57
lizard
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| n.蜥蜴，壁虎 | |
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58
lizards
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| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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59
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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60
gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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61
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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62
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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63
unanimity
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| n.全体一致，一致同意 | |
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64
lamented
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| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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66
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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67
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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68
pounce
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| n.猛扑；v.猛扑，突然袭击，欣然同意 | |
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69
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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70
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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71
tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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72
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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73
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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74
skulker
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| n.偷偷隐躲起来的人，偷懒的人 | |
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75
spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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76
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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77
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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78
vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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79
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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80
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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81
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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82
jaguar
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| n.美洲虎 | |
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83
leopard
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| n.豹 | |
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84
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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85
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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86
ostrich
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| n.鸵鸟 | |
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87
ostriches
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| n.鸵鸟( ostrich的名词复数 )；逃避现实的人，不愿正视现实者 | |
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88
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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89
herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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90
gregarious
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| adj.群居的，喜好群居的 | |
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91
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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92
distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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93
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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94
burrows
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| n.地洞( burrow的名词复数 )v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的第三人称单数 )；翻寻 | |
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95
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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96
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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97
untoward
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| adj.不利的，不幸的，困难重重的 | |
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98
hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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99
betoken
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| v.预示 | |
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100
livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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101
necessitate
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| v.使成为必要，需要 | |
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102
inveterate
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| adj.积习已深的，根深蒂固的 | |
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103
perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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104
cactus
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| n.仙人掌 | |
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105
lapses
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| n.失误，过失( lapse的名词复数 )；小毛病；行为失检；偏离正道v.退步( lapse的第三人称单数 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
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106
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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107
piously
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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108
evaporation
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| n.蒸发，消失 | |
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109
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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110
jointed
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| 有接缝的 | |
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111
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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112
dwarfed
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| vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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113
stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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114
encumber
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| v.阻碍行动，妨碍，堆满 | |
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115
undue
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| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
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116
transpiration
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| n.蒸发 | |
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117
wither
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| vt.使凋谢，使衰退，(用眼神气势等)使畏缩；vi.枯萎，衰退，消亡 | |
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118
scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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119
repel
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| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
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120
morsel
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| n.一口，一点点 | |
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121
defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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122
spines
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| n.脊柱( spine的名词复数 )；脊椎；（动植物的）刺；书脊 | |
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123
tenacious
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| adj.顽强的，固执的，记忆力强的，粘的 | |
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124
moths
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| n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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125
naturalist
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| n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
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126
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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127
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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128
mimic
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| v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人 | |
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129
structural
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| adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的 | |
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130
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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131
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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132
prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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133
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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134
brackish
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| adj.混有盐的；咸的 | |
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135
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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136
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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137
fauna
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| n.(一个地区或时代的)所有动物，动物区系 | |
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138
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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139
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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140
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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141
ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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142
oases
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| n.（沙漠中的）绿洲( oasis的名词复数 )；（困苦中）令人快慰的地方（或时刻）；乐土；乐事 | |
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143
dispel
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| vt.驱走，驱散，消除 | |
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144
iconoclast
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| n.反对崇拜偶像者 | |
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145
stereotyped
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| adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的 | |
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146
journalism
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| n.新闻工作，报业 | |
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147
dyke
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| n.堤，水坝，排水沟 | |
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148
chimerical
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| adj.荒诞不经的，梦幻的 | |
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149
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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150
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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151
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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152
wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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153
descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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154
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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155
dotage
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| n.年老体衰；年老昏聩 | |
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156
geologists
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| 地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 ) | |
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157
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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158
interspersed
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| adj.[医]散开的；点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词 | |
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159
excavated
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| v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘 | |
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