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The Search for America's Atlantis
寻找美国的亚特兰蒂斯
Like apparitions, California's Channel Islands sometimes vanish in the morning fog. Even on mist-free days, when their golden cliffs can be glimpsed from the mainland, few people seem to take much note of them. Despite their proximity, the islands are seldom visited by Californians, who mostly know them for the way their silhouettes interrupt the horizon of a Santa Barbara sunset.
加州海峡群岛有时消失在晨雾中，就像幽灵一样。没有雾的时候，即使陆地上可以一睹这些金色海岛峭壁，似乎也很少有人会注意到它们。尽管距离陆地不远，加州人很少去这些海岛，大多数人知道它们是因为这些海岛的存在遮挡了在圣巴巴拉看日落的视线。
Last August, I traveled to one of the largest of the Channel Islands, Santa Rosa. I joined an expedition led by the archaeologist Todd Braje, who has spent 15 of his 45 years doing fieldwork in the islands, during which he has acquired a feel for their primeval landscapes. On our first morning hike, in Arlington Canyon, an Ice Age watershed on the island's northwestern edge, Braje walked the canyon's lip, looking for the gentlest slope before bounding downhill.
去年8月，我去了圣罗莎岛，它是加州海峡群岛最大的岛屿之一。我跟随考古学家托德·布拉杰(Todd Braje)带领的探险队一同前往，45岁的他在这些海岛上开展野外工作已经有15年了，这些年以来，他感受到了这些海岛原始景观的魅力。我们第一次晨间徒步来到了圣罗莎岛西北部边缘的阿灵顿峡谷(Arlington Canyon)，这里是冰河时代的分水岭（冰川边缘之外）。布拉杰沿着峡谷的边缘，找到最平缓的斜坡开始下坡。
Santa Rosa is an archaeologist's dream. Its landscapes have suffered few injuries from commercial development. And now that it's part of Channel Islands National Park, the island is uninhabited but for a small campsite, the ranger's headquarters, and Park Service housing, where we were staying. Better still, Braje explained, its sedimentary layers have never been scrambled by gophers, because no burrowing rodents have made it across the channel. The island is a well-preserved time capsule, and the archaeologists unsealing it are already stumbling upon extraordinary finds, especially in Arlington Canyon.
圣罗莎岛是考古学家梦想的地方。那里的自然景观几乎没有受到商业开发的影响。现在它属于海峡群岛国家公园，岛上无人居住，除了一个小营地，护林员总部和国家公园管理局的房屋，而这次我们就住在那里。布拉杰解释说，更值得庆幸的是，土壤的沉积层从来没有被地鼠破坏过，因为没有穴居的啮齿动物能穿越过海峡。这个岛是一个保存完好的时间胶囊，考古学家来到这里偶然有了一些惊人的发现，尤其是在阿灵顿峡谷。
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