Chapter 818 Golden Meteorite
Carrying the dead viper, Bifang found a flatter stone slab on the spot and took them to the stream in the canyon.
Skinned, bled and cleaned expertly.
These days, Bifang probably eats the most rattlesnakes, and he is very skilled at making this dish.
He used a dagger to cut the snake neatly in half from the belly, then lifted up the spine, started from the head, and slid along the spine to separate the entire snake bone, leaving a long, flat piece of soft snake meat. He then put it into water and washed it, until it was like a long, flat ribbon, and when it came out, it was almost unrecognizable.
The snake's stomach pouch was also preserved and used as a water bottle. For some unknown reason a few days ago, one of the snake's stomachs burst and a large amount of fresh water was lost. Today's water was just enough to replenish it.
[Wow, it feels similar to eel poker]
[There is no difference between snakes and eels. They both have only one spine. Pick them apart, slice them, and stir-fry them with green peppers. They are very fragrant.]
[I'm a little hungry now, time to order some midnight snack]
[Lao Fang eats lunch while fans eat supper. Is this jet lag? Love it.]
After cleaning the snake meat, Bifang took out a "big stone", immersed it in water, and fished it out after a while. After the "stone" loosened a little, he peeled off the pure white snake eggs from it.
These snake eggs are not scattered one by one like chicken eggs, but are all bound together by unknown substances. The joints are all sandy, and they look like they are embedded in the stone ball, which is quite strange.
[By the way, why are snake eggs all clumped together? They feel like stones]
"Snakes are reptiles that lay amniotic eggs, which have a moist and soft surface. In addition, the female snake also secretes a kind of mucus during the egg-laying process to lubricate the birth canal, allowing the eggs to be laid smoothly."
"The surface of the snake eggs laid will be sticky with mucus, which will solidify quickly and stick all the eggs together through the amniotic membrane to form a complete egg mass."
"Because it is in a desert area, the condensation process will inevitably be contaminated with sand. When it is united together, it looks like eggs growing on the stone. Sometimes it is even completely clumped up by sand, and it is impossible to find it without careful observation."
"Speaking of which, some snakes lay eggs, while others lay live eggs. We are lucky. The horned viper is the former, so we can eat its eggs now."
【What is this】
[I understand oviparity, what is viviparity]
[Thin, slender]
"Oviparous means laying eggs."
"Oviparity is a little different. The snake has eggs in its stomach, but it doesn't lay them. After the eggs hatch inside the body, the baby snakes come out directly. You can't see the eggs."
"This may be related to the living environment of different snakes."
After being cleaned, the pure white snake eggs were placed on the shore, neatly arranged together. They were about the size of a thumb, and there were nearly twenty of them!
"Snakes living in watery areas do not have a good incubation environment for their eggs, so they adopt an ovoviviparous reproduction strategy of letting the eggs hatch inside the mother's body and directly giving birth to baby snakes."
"Snakes that live in warmer areas with fewer natural enemies usually lay more eggs because the natural incubation of their eggs is safe."
"But this is not absolute. It is mainly the result of genetics. Some life rules have not yet been discovered by humans."
Bifang shook off the water stains, and under the scorching sun, the water stains on the snake eggs quickly evaporated. When they were held under the sun, the scene inside the snake eggs could be clearly seen through the eggshell. Fortunately, no fully formed baby snakes were seen.
"Vipers can lay eggs or lay live eggs. Fortunately, the horned viper lays eggs. They hide their eggs under rocks or in caves dug by other animals, and they hatch in two to three months."
After the process was completed, Bifang returned to the cave with the stone slab and food, then made a fire to boil water, put up the stone slab and kettle, and then threw all the washed snake eggs into the kettle.
"Snake eggs are rich in protein, with a content of up to 60%. They are much more nutritious than chicken eggs. They are also rich in minerals, trace elements and amino acids required by the human body. From a nutritional point of view, snake eggs are a high-nutrient substance."
"However, not many people eat snake eggs. First, snakes are not like chickens that lay eggs every day. Second, snake eggs are far less valuable than adult snakes. Third, probably not many people eat snakes. Most people still have a subconscious fear of snakes."
The water is boiling and the milky white snake eggs are rolling slightly in it.
Bifang placed the snake meat on the stone slab. Under the high temperature, the snake meat, which was more than half a meter long, quickly curled up and emitted a faint aroma of oil.
"I have said many times that wild snake meat is likely to contain parasites, but don't be afraid. As non-microorganisms, they cannot withstand a temperature of 100 degrees. You just need to wait patiently for a while to allow the high temperature to be thoroughly transmitted to every cell. It doesn't matter even if the food is a little burnt. Safety is far more important than taste."
A normal egg only needs seven or eight minutes to be thoroughly cooked, not even a soft-boiled egg. But for the smaller snake eggs, Bifang boiled them for almost ten minutes and even added water twice, which shows how cautious he was. But because of this, the taste was not very good.
"The protein in eggs contains a lot of methionine. After being heated for a long time, it will decompose into sulfide, which reacts with the iron in the egg yolk to form iron sulfide, which is not easily absorbed by the human body, resulting in a large loss of nutrition."
"So if you combine the two, ten minutes is about enough."
Bifang poured it out, let it cool slightly, picked up one, put it into his mouth, chewed it with the shell, and then swallowed it.
【How is it? 】
【What does it taste like】
[I have never eaten snake eggs in my life. Are they the same as chicken eggs? ]
How can it be the same?
[I think the best is goose eggs, boiled, very delicate, and then eaten with soy sauce, it is fragrant]
Bifang pondered for a moment, licked the corner of his mouth, and said, "It's dry and not very delicious."
[What? That’s it]
[A wasted wait]
[What are you looking forward to? Even if it’s delicious, you won’t get to enjoy it]
"When eggs are boiled in boiling water for more than 10 minutes, a series of chemical changes will occur inside them. The protein structure becomes tighter and is not easily accessible to the protein digestive enzymes in gastric juice, making it more difficult to digest. The yolk also becomes very dry and loose."
"Snake eggs have a higher protein content, so they are more sticky when eaten. Plus, the eggshell makes them not very tasty."
After the snake eggs comes the snake meat. There is nothing much to say about this. It is no different from other snake meat.
It has a slightly bitter taste with a hint of oil and a unique taste.
However, snake meat sprinkled with a thin layer of salt in the wilderness is also a rare delicacy.
One snake was enough for lunch, and he only tasted one of the snake eggs and put the rest in his bag for dinner.
The next day, the live broadcast had not yet started.
Bifang drew a map on the ground, and with the help of his memory and the route, he found the approximate coordinates and left them to the local government.
Although it is not known how the locals will use it, and whether this place is an unknown mural site, Bifang cannot control those things.
Riding on Alpha and continuing on the road, the audience followed Bifang's time and witnessed the surroundings changing from huge rocks to sand dunes again, and watched the many rocks that were eroded by the wind into strange shapes such as "castles" and "stone mushrooms" gradually disappear.
Under the blowing of the wind, many staggered strip-like ridges are formed on the flat sand surface. These ridges look like waves, rising and falling one after another.
Bifang was not happy to return to the familiar scene again. How could he? He would rather face the rocks from the previous few days.
"Sand dunes can move. Driven by the wind, they can move everywhere, and they can move very quickly. In a day, a sand dune weighing several thousand tons can move dozens of meters."
"The moving sand dunes have created a lot of 'mazes' in the Sahara Desert. If you are not careful, you will get lost in the desert."
"Sand dunes are also avid spreaders, moving at a rate of several thousand metres per year, which is causing the Sahara Desert to expand faster and faster."
"I had to re-evaluate my direction every once in a while to confirm my route, which was very troublesome."
During the day, the most reliable guide to direction is undoubtedly the sun, and even the sand dunes under the prevailing wind can only serve as an auxiliary basis.
"Not to mention there's quicksand in there."
The moving sand dunes will bury everything they go in the sand, forming a vast sea of sand. The sea of sand looks very flat and spectacular, but it is full of dangers.
The sand in the sand sea is very loose, and the loose sand creates many "traps".
These traps are very hidden and can easily trap people.
The piles of bones in the Sahara Desert are testimony to the deaths.
Camels have broad hooves and are not afraid of these things, but Bifang does not sit on Alpha's back all the time.
Grasslands, rocky deserts, oases, canyons, sand dunes.
The audience has followed Bifang to witness the richness and diversity of the Sahara, but this is far from all of it.
"Crystal? No, it should be glass."
In the desert, Bifang held a stick, poked in the sand, and picked out a translucent crystal.
The crystals are irregular and have a light yellow color, looking like a natural mineral.
This is an oasis, but unlike most oases, the water here is not fresh water.
There are many flies gathered on the water surface. These flies can filter out the concentrated salt and store fresh water in their bodies.
Next to these flies, Bifang also saw a few birds.
Just as desert travelers can get water by squeezing cacti, birds can get fresh water by eating flies.
This may be the only stop for the birds, and they gain enough energy to escape from the barren Sahara Desert.
However, at this moment, the audience’s attention was not on this exquisite little ecosystem, but on the “stone” in Bifang’s hand.
【What? Glass? 】
[Shouldn't it be crystal or something? ]
[I can’t tell the difference]
"No, it's glass."
Bifang put the stone against his face to confirm that his feeling was correct.
"Under normal conditions, the temperature of natural crystal is lower than that of glass. When you touch it with your palm or cheek, you will feel slightly cold. Even in the hot summer, if you lick the surface of the crystal with your tongue, you will feel cool. Glass does not have this feeling. This is determined by their thermal conductivity."
"And the weight is different too. Crystal is a stone-like substance with a high density, so it can't be too light."
"Then there's the refraction, the difference in hardness. I can be sure it's glass."
Bifang tossed the stone with an affirmative tone.
[Why does this glass look like it was formed naturally? 】
"It's not like, it should be."
"There is a kind of natural glass in the Libyan desert that is the purest in the world. Is that its special feature?"
"In 1932, a British explorer named Patrick Clayton led an expedition deep into the Sahara Desert. In the Libyan Desert, Clayton discovered some yellow-green 'stones' scattered on the desert."
"In 1996, Italian mineralogist Vincenzo Michele accidentally discovered traces of the yellow-green 'stone' in the Egyptian Museum. But it was not exhibited alone, but hidden as a treasure in the necklace of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh."
"The scarab in the center of the Egyptian pharaoh's necklace is made of Libyan desert glass."
[Fuck, the ancients three thousand years ago knew how to make glass? ]
[Are you stupid? God Fang said there is natural glass... It is obviously polished.]
"In nature, there are four main situations in which natural glass is formed."
"One is volcanic glass, which is formed when volcanic magma erupts underwater or on the surface and cools rapidly."
"One is pseudo-basalt glass, which is usually the product of melting caused by frictional heat when an earthquake fault slips."
"The last type is glass meteorites, which are formed when a huge extraterrestrial object hits the earth, melting the surface rocks into liquid, and then splashing into the sky. When it suddenly cools and falls back to the ground, it forms glass meteorites."
"Another type is impact glass produced by meteorite impact metamorphism."
"Scientists have discovered a huge impact crater in the desert of western Egypt and named it Kobira."
"The glass in the Libyan desert is most likely the product of the Kobyla impact. Supporting evidence for this is the presence of a high-pressure mineral called redisite in the glass, which is only formed when a meteorite hits."
"The Egyptians called this kind of glass golden meteorite, and regarded it as a treasure for rituals that brought the sun god to the earth. The most famous work made of Libyan golden meteorite is the pendant on the chest of Tutankhamun, the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt - a scarab carved from golden meteorite."
"Tutankhamun is considered by contemporary spiritual saints to be a pharaoh who peacefully ascended."
"It is said that early ancient Egypt prospered with the support of aliens, and gold meteorites can help restore this connection. They can connect to the important Egyptian gods, the goddess Isis and Osiris."
“This thing seems to be quite valuable.”
Bifang pointed the stone in his hand towards the sun, and the stone in his hand emitted a clear yellow light.
