海底兩萬里 第2期 第1章 飛走的暗礁(2)

　　If it was a cetacean, it exceeded in bulk any whale previously classified by science.

　　如果這東西是鯨魚類動物，那么它的體積：是大大超過了生物學(xué)家曾經(jīng)加以分類的鯨魚。

　　No naturalist, neither Cuvier nor Lacépède, neither Professor Dumeril nor Professor de Quatrefages, would have accepted the existence of such a monster sight unseen-- specifically, unseen by their own scientific eyes.

　　居維埃拉色別德、杜梅里、卡特法日，這些生物學(xué)家一一除非看見過，也就是說，除非這些科學(xué)家本人的眼睛看見過—是不承認(rèn)有這樣一種怪物存在的。

　　Striking an average of observations taken at different times-rejecting those timid estimates that gave the object a length of 200 feet,

　　把多次觀察的結(jié)果折中一下來看———方面丟開那些過低的估計，即這個東西只有二百英尺長，

　　and ignoring those exaggerated views that saw it as a mile wide and three long

　　同時也不接受過于夸張的言論，即它有一英里。寬三英里長。

　　you could still assert that this phenomenal creature greatly exceeded the dimensions of anything then known to ichthyologists, if it existed at all.

　　我們可以肯定他說，這個奇怪的生物，如果真是存在的話，它的體積是大大超過魚類學(xué)家所承認(rèn)的體積的。

　　Now then, it did exist, this was an undeniable fact; and since the human mind dotes on objects of wonder,

　　這東西既然存在，而事實本身又是不可否認(rèn)的，那么，由于人類好奇的心理，

　　you can understand the worldwide excitement caused by this unearthly apparition. As forrelegating it to the realm of fiction, that charge had to be dropped.

　　我們就不難理解這個怪物的出現(xiàn)會在全世界引起怎樣的騷動。至于說這是荒唐無稽之談，那是決不會有人同意的。

　　In essence, on July 20, 1866, the steamer Governor Higginson, from the Calcutta & Burnach Steam Navigation Co., encountered this moving mass five miles off the eastern shores of Australia.

　　因為，1866年7月20日，加爾各答一布納希汽船公司的喜金孫總督號，在澳大利亞海岸東邊五英里，碰見了這個游動的巨大物體。

　　Captain Baker at first thought he was in the presence of an unknown reef; he was even about to fix its exact position when two waterspouts shot out of this inexplicable object and sprang hissing into the air some 150 feet.

　　巴克船長起初還以為這是沒有人知道的、暗礁，他正要測定它的位置的時候，突然這個不可解釋的物體噴出兩道水柱，嘩的一聲射到空中一百五十英尺高。

　　So, unless this reef was subject to the intermittent eruptions of a geyser, the Governor Higginson had fair and honest dealings with some aquatic mammal, until then unknown, that could spurt from its blowholes waterspouts mixed with air and steam.

　　這么說，除非這座暗礁上邊有間歇噴泉，不然的話，喜金孫總督號面前的東西，就是還沒有人知道的一種海中哺乳類動物，它還從鼻孔中噴出有氣泡的水柱呢。