The risks at Yellowstone apply to park employees as much as to visitors. 黄石公园对游客来说有危险，对公园雇员来说也同样有危险。

　　Doss got a horrific sense of that in his first week on the job five years earlier. 多斯5年前到这里来上班的第一个星期就有那种可怕的感觉。

　　Late one night, three young summer employees engaged in an illicit activity known as "hot-potting"—swimming or basking in warm pools. 有一天深夜，3个年轻的夏季雇员干了一件非法活动，叫做“泡沙锅”——即在热水池里游泳或取暖。

　　Though the park, for obvious reasons, doesn't publicize it, not all the pools in Yellowstone are dangerously hot. 虽然园方由于显而易见的理由没有把情况公开，但黄石公园的水池不是个个都是滚烫的。

　　Some are extremely agreeable to lie in, 有一些你躺在里面简直惬意极了，

　　and it was the habit of some of the summer employees to have a dip late at night even though it was against the rules to do so. 部分夏季雇员有在深夜下去泡一泡的习惯，尽管这么做是违反规定的。

　　Foolishly the threesome had failed to take a flashlight, which was extremely dangerous  那3个人也真傻，没有带个手电筒；这是极其危险的，

　　because much of the soil around the warm pools is crusty and thin and one can easily fall through into a scalding vent below. 因为热水池周围的泥土结成了薄薄的一层硬壳，人很容易掉进下面灼烫的喷气孔。

　　In any case, as they made their way back to their dorm, they came across a stream that they had had to leap over earlier. 无论如何，他们在返回宿舍的途中，要跨越一条早先不得不跳过去的小溪。

　　They backed up a few paces, linked arms and, on the count of three, took a running jump. 他们后退几步，胳膊挽着胳膊，数了一二三，接着就跑过去纵身一跳。

　　In fact, it wasn't the stream at all. It was a boiling pool. 事实上，那根本不是一条小溪，而是一个沸腾的水池。

　　In the dark they had lost their bearings. None of the three survived. 他们在黑暗里看不清方向。三个人没有一个活着回来。

　　I thought about this the next morning as I made a brief call, on my way out of the park, at a place called Emerald Pool, in the Upper Geyser Basin. 次日上午，在离开公园的途中，我一面想着那件事，一面对一个名叫翡翠池的地方作了短暂考察。翡翠池位于上间歇泉池。

　　Doss hadn't had time to take me there the day before, but I thought I ought at least to have a look at it, for Emerald Pool is a historic site. 多斯前一天没有时间带我去那里，但我觉得至少应当去看一眼，因为翡翠池是个很有历史意义的地方。