northernbook Chapter 822 818: Gold Meteorite
Chapter 822 818: Gold Meteorite
Holding the dead horned viper, Bi Fang found a flat rock nearby and took them to the stream in the canyon.
He skillfully skinned, bled, and washed the snake.
These days, the food Bi Fang had the most was rattlesnake, and he was very skilled in this process.
He neatly slit the snake's abdomen with a dagger, picked up the spinal column to start, and slid along the spine to separate the whole snake bone, leaving a soft, flat piece of snake meat, which he then washed in the water like a long, flat strip, almost unrecognizable when it came out again.
The snake's stomach was also preserved to serve as a water bottle, and for some reason a few days ago, a snake bag had burst, losing a lot of fresh water, which he now used as a supplement.
[Gosh, feels pretty much like cleaning swamp eel]
[Snakes and eels basically have no difference, both just have one spine, pick that out, then slice, fry with green peppers, especially delicious]
[Talking about it made me a bit hungry, time for some midnight snack]
[Old Fang has lunch, fans have midnight snack, is this the time difference, love it, love it]
After cleaning the snake meat, Bi Fang took a "big rock" and immersed it in the water, fished it out after a while, waited for the "rock" to loosen a bit, and then peeled off the pure white snake eggs.
These snake eggs were not scattered individually like chicken eggs but were bound together by an unknown substance; the joints were sandy, looking as if embedded into a stone sphere, quite peculiar.
[Speanking of which, why are all the snake eggs clumped together, feels like a rock]
"Because snakes are reptiles and they lay amniotic eggs, which are moist and soft on the surface. Also, during the egg-laying process, the mother snake secretes a mucus to lubricate the birth canal, thus facilitating smooth egg-laying."
"The surface of the laid snake eggs will be sticky with mucus, which quickly solidifies, sticking all the eggs together through the amniotic eggs, forming a complete egg mass."
"Also, since this is in a desert area, the solidification process inevitably attracts sand, making it look as if the eggs are growing on the rock. Sometimes, they can even be completely encased in sand, making them hard to find without a careful
"The moving sand dunes in the Sahara Desert create numerous 'labyrinths', one could easily lose direction in the desert if not careful."
"Sand dunes are also aggressive expanders, moving thousands of kilometers every year, which accelerates the expansion rate of the Sahara Desert."
"I have to reassess my direction periodically to confirm my route forward, which is quite troublesome."
During the day, the most reliable direction guide is undoubtedly the sun, even though the prevailing winds and sand dunes serve only as secondary references.
"Not to mention the quicksand."
Moving sand dunes bury everything in their path under the sand, forming vast seas of sand; these seas appear flat and spectacular, yet lethal traps are hidden within.
The sand of these seas is very loose, and these loose sands form various "traps."
These traps are highly disguised and can easily engulf a person.
The scattered skeletons in the Sahara Desert bear witness to those who perished.
Camels, with their broad hooves, do not fear these features, but Bi Fang is not always sitting on Alpha's back.
Grassland, rocky desert, oasis, canyons, sand dunes.
The audience has followed Bi Fang through the rich and colorful Sahara, but this is far from all it has to offer.
"Crystal? No, it should be glass."
In the desert, Bi Fang used a tree stick to poke the sandy ground, picking out a semi-transparent crystal.
The crystal was irregular, with a faint yellow hue, resembling a natural mineral.
Here was an oasis, but unlike most, the water here was not freshwater.
Many flies gathered on the water's surface, these flies able to filter the high salt content and store freshwater inside their bodies.
Next to these flies, Bi Fang also spotted a few birds.
Just as desert travelers can extract water by squeezing cacti, the birds get freshwater by preying on flies.
This may be the birds' only stop, having gained enough energy, perhaps they could escape the barren Sahara Desert.
However, at this moment, the audience's attention was not on this delicate ecosystem, but rather on the "stone" in Bi Fang's hands.
[What? Glass?]
[Shouldn't it be crystal or something?]
[I can't tell them apart]
"No, it is indeed glass."
Bi Fang held the stone against his face to make sure he was not mistaken.
"Under normal conditions, natural crystal is cooler to the touch than glass; it feels slightly cold when touched with the palm or cheek, even in the heat of summer, if you lick its surface with your tongue, it will feel cold and refreshing—glass doesn't exhibit this due to its heat conductivity."
"Moreover, there's a difference in weight; crystal is a type of stone, dense and not very light."
"There are also differences in refraction and hardness, I can confirm this is glass."
Bi Fang tossed the stone, his tone affirmative.
[How could this glass seem to be naturally formed?]
"It's not just seeming, it probably is."
"In the Libyan Desert, there exists one of the world's purest forms of natural glass, which is somewhat characteristic of it, isn't it?"
"In 1932, a British explorer named Patrick Clayton led an expedition deep into the Sahara Desert.
In the Libyan Desert, Clayton found the desert scattered with yellow-green 'stones' that were crystalline and glass-like in appearance, looking very valuable.
In 1996, an Italian mineralogist named Vincenzo de Michele accidentally discovered traces of desert glass in an Egyptian museum. However, it wasn't displayed on its own, but rather as a treasure, subtly embedded in an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh's necklace.
The scarab in the center of the Pharaoh's necklace was made out of Libyan Desert glass."
[Holy shit, people from 3000 years ago knew how to make glass?]
[Are you stupid? Master Fang said it's natural glass... obviously polished]
"There are mainly four scenarios in nature for the formation of natural glass."
"One is volcanic glass, created when volcanic magma erupts underwater or onto the Earth's surface and cools quickly."
"One is pseudo-basaltic glass, typically formed by frictional heat during seismic fault slips, resulting in a melting effect."
"The last one is glass meteorites, formed when large extraterrestrial objects strike the Earth, melting the Earth's surface rocks into liquid that splashes into the sky and then solidifies into glass as it cools and falls back to the ground."
"Another is impact metamorphic glass, created by the metamorphism due to meteorite impacts."
"Scientists discovered a huge meteorite crater in the western desert of Egypt, named Kebira."
"The glass found in the Libyan Desert is most likely the product of the Kebira impact. Evidence supporting this includes a high-pressure mineral named reidite found in the glass, which is only formed during meteorite impacts."
"The Egyptians called this type of glass 'Gold Meteorite,' considered it a ceremonial treasure that brought the sun god to Earth, the most famed Libyan Gold Meteorite artifact is from the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt, a scarab carved from Gold Meteorite worn on the chest of Pharaoh Tutankhamun."
"Tutankhamun is regarded by contemporary spiritual sages as a peacefully ascended Pharaoh King."
"It is rumored that the early prosperity of ancient Egypt was supported by extraterrestrials, and Gold Meteorites could help restore this connection. They could link to significant Egyptian deities, the goddess Isis and Osiris."
"This thing seems quite valuable."
Bi Fang held the stone up to the sun, and the stone in his hand emitted a clear yellow light.