美国国家公共电台 NPR The Gold-Hungry Forty-Niners Also Plundered Something Else: Eggs

The Gold-Hungry Forty-Niners Also Plundered¹ Something Else: Eggs

(SOUNDBITE OF PAUL SIMON SONG, "CAN'T RUN BUT")

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The theme for Hidden Kitchens. We're hearing from little-known places where people come together around food or don't come together, in this case. The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, are taking us to the Farallon Islands off San Francisco Bay. A hundred and fifty years ago, at the height of the gold rush, this was the site of the Egg Wars.

GARY KAMIYA: The Farallon Islands are the most forbidding piece of real estate to be found within the city limits of San Francisco. My name is Gary Kamiya, journalist and author. The Farallon Islands are 28 miles outside the Golden Gate. In extremely turbulent, dangerous seas, they rise right up out of the ocean where there's no reason for them to be, the skeletal quality like San Francisco without its skin.

KEITH HANSEN: Originally, they used to be down in the Tehachapis in Southern California near Bakersfield and have been grinding their way north on the Pacific Plate about a quarter of an inch a year, about as fast as your fingernail grows.

KAMIYA: Completely isolated², haunted by great white sharks and an enormous bird population.

MARY JANE SCHRAMM: The largest seabird rockery in the contiguous United States.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

PETER PYLE: Suddenly, between 1849 and 1854, hundreds and hundreds of people came West seeking gold. My name's Peter Pyle, Farallon biologist.

KAMIYA: This incredible migration³ flooded into San Francisco - people from all over the world. It was a combination of casino, campground, brothel. Early on, some shrewd forty-niners began to realize that there was more money to be made mining the miners (laughter) than there was in mining the gold fields. Dozens of crude eating joints⁴ - hundreds of voracious⁵ miners would eat in shifts. Eggs was one of the foodstuffs⁶ that was in such short supply.

EVA CHRYSANTHE: It's a protein-hungry town. The few existing chickens in San Francisco had been utterly⁷ devoured⁸, so people were foraging⁹. I'm Eva Chrysanthe, illustrator and writer. After you wipe out all the bird nests on shore, then you go out to the Farallones.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

KAMIYA: Doc Robinson was the first entrepreneur to begin the egg business. Robinson was a pharmacist. He sailed out to the Farallones and hauled back these murre eggs, selling them to restaurants and grocery stores. Gathering¹⁰ the murre eggs was tough, dirty, dangerous work. The murres laid their eggs up on these towering, steep cliffs higher than Nob Hill.

CHRYSANTHE: Doc Robinson takes his brother-in-law, Orin. They're able to poach $3,000 worth of eggs. He had no interest in going back. It was a hellish experience.

KAMIYA: Robinson's egg business helped kick off the egg rush.

SCHRAMM: The common murre was the most sought-after, most delectable¹¹ of the eggs out there. My name is Mary Jane Schramm, Gulf¹² of the Farallones National Marine¹³ Sanctuary¹⁴.

KAMIYA: Murre eggs are about twice as big as a chicken egg.

HANSEN: My name is Keith Hansen. I illustrate¹⁵ birds. The white of the egg, when you fry it, it stays clear and gelatinous, and the yolk¹⁶ is deep reddish, very unappetizing to look at.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

PETER WHITE: My name is Peter White, author of "The Farallon Islands: Sentinels Of The Golden Gate." In 1851, six men formed the Pacific Egg Company and claimed exclusive rights to the islands. In May, when the birds first begin to lay, the company would land 10 to 30 men on the island.

PYLE: They'd row in on these little rowboats, which itself was a test of stamina¹⁷.

WHITE: The newspaper people described the egg-pickers, mostly Italians and Greeks, as lowlifes.

KAMIYA: There they were, sending their men up to these sheer guano-stinking cliffs, being attacked by swirling¹⁸ gulls¹⁹. And these were rough-neck guys, waterfront types, climbing up, pushing eggs into their special egg pockets.

WHITE: When the egg-pickers went in for the first time, they would smash every egg. That way, they could be assured that the next day when they return, every egg gathered would be fresh. In the early 1850s, 500,000 eggs were gathered a year.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

PYLE: The eggers started coming out at about the same time the lighthouse was built at the Farallones.

KAMIYA: The lighthouse keepers had to contend with these raucous²⁰, aggressive eggers. Rival eggers would sail out and challenge them. One man in particular, David Batchelder, just kept showing up with his own bands of roughnecks. The Great Egg War of the Farallones took place just a few weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg.

KAMIYA: On June 3, 1863, three boatloads of heavily armed men came to the island. They even had a cannon²¹ with them.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

KAMIYA: Batchelder and 27 other armed men appear. The guys in the egg company yelled out to them, land at your peril²². Batchelder - he and his men spent the rest of the night drinking. They got themselves into an aggressive, alcohol-fueled state. The egg company warned them. Then they opened fire.

WHITE: The first casualty was one of the egg company's employees, Edward Perkins, who was shot through the stomach and died.

KAMIYA: The guys on the boats - five of them got shot, and they were driven off. Finally, the federal government ruled all commercial eggers off of the islands. After that, any egging was done by the lighthouse keepers - black-market trading, trying to line their pockets with eggs.

WHITE: The murre population declined year after year.

PYLE: It went from three to four hundred thousand common murres, down to 6,000.

KAMIYA: For decades, it was said that if you ate any baked goods in San Francisco, you were probably eating murre eggs.

PYLE: When chickens finally got established in Petaluma, that's what ended up doing in the whole murre egg industry.

KAMIYA: The Farallones are now used by scientists. They are tracking the recovery of these species. It's a robust²³ population now, despite the best efforts of the Farallon eggers.

GREENE: Well, who knew? That story about the Egg Wars was produced by The Kitchen Sisters and mixed by Jim McKee. And you should check out The Kitchen Sisters' podcast, Fugitive²⁴ Waves.

1 plundered   

掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Many of our cultural treasures have been plundered by imperialists. 我国许多珍贵文物被帝国主义掠走了。
• The imperialists plundered many valuable works of art. 帝国主义列强掠夺了许多珍贵的艺术品。

2 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

3 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

4 joints   

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）

参考例句：

• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。

5 voracious   

adj.狼吞虎咽的，贪婪的

参考例句：

• She's a voracious reader of all kinds of love stories.什么样的爱情故事她都百看不厌。
• Joseph Smith was a voracious book collector.约瑟夫·史密斯是个如饥似渴的藏书家。

6 foodstuffs   

食物，食品( foodstuff的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Imports of foodstuffs accounted for a small proportion of total imports. 食物进口仅占总进口额的一小部份。
• Many basic foodstuffs, such as bread and milk, are tax-free. 许多基本食物如牛奶和面包是免税的。

7 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

8 devoured   

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

参考例句：

• She devoured everything she could lay her hands on: books, magazines and newspapers. 无论是书、杂志，还是报纸，只要能弄得到，她都看得津津有味。
• The lions devoured a zebra in a short time. 狮子一会儿就吃掉了一匹斑马。

9 foraging   

v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的现在分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西）

参考例句：

• They eke out a precarious existence foraging in rubbish dumps. 他们靠在垃圾场捡垃圾维持着朝不保夕的生活。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The campers went foraging for wood to make a fire. 露营者去搜寻柴木点火。 来自辞典例句

10 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

11 delectable   

adj.使人愉快的；美味的

参考例句：

• What delectable food you cook!你做的食品真好吃！
• But today the delectable seafood is no longer available in abundance.但是今天这种可口的海味已不再大量存在。

12 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

13 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

14 sanctuary   

n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区

参考例句：

• There was a sanctuary of political refugees behind the hospital.医院后面有一个政治难民的避难所。
• Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。

15 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

16 yolk   

n.蛋黄，卵黄

参考例句：

• This dish would be more delicious with some yolk powder.加点蛋黄粉，这道菜就会更好吃。
• Egg yolk serves as the emulsifying agent in salad dressing.在色拉调味时，蛋黄能作为乳化剂。

17 stamina   

n.体力；精力；耐力

参考例句：

• I lacked the stamina to run the whole length of the race.我没有跑完全程的耐力。
• Giving up smoking had a magical effect on his stamina.戒烟神奇地增强了他的体力。

18 swirling   

v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Snowflakes were swirling in the air. 天空飘洒着雪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. 她微笑着，旋动着杯子里的葡萄酒。 来自辞典例句

19 gulls   

n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A flock of sea gulls are hovering over the deck. 一群海鸥在甲板上空飞翔。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The gulls which haunted the outlying rocks in a prodigious number. 数不清的海鸥在遥远的岩石上栖息。 来自辞典例句

20 raucous   

adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的

参考例句：

• I heard sounds of raucous laughter upstairs.我听见楼上传来沙哑的笑声。
• They heard a bottle being smashed,then more raucous laughter.他们听见酒瓶摔碎的声音，然后是一阵更喧闹的笑声。

21 cannon   

n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮

参考例句：

• The soldiers fired the cannon.士兵们开炮。
• The cannon thundered in the hills.大炮在山间轰鸣。

22 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

23 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

24 fugitive   

adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者

参考例句：

• The police were able to deduce where the fugitive was hiding.警方成功地推断出那逃亡者躲藏的地方。
• The fugitive is believed to be headed for the border.逃犯被认为在向国境线逃窜。