海底兩萬里 第19期 第2章 正與反(8)

My article was hotly debated, causing a fine old uproar.

我的文章引起了熱烈的討論，產(chǎn)生了很大的反響。

It rallied a number of supporters. Moreover, the solution it proposed allowed for free play of the imagination.

很有一部分人擁護它。而且丈中提出的結(jié)論可以讓人隨便去設(shè)想，沒有什么限制。

The human mind enjoys impressive visions of unearthly creatures.

人們總是對那些神奇怪誕的幻想感倒興趣。

Now then, the sea is precisely their best medium, the only setting suitable for the breeding and growing of such giants--next to which such land animals as elephants orrhinoceroses are mere dwarves.

而海洋正是這些幻想的最好泉源，因為只有海才是巨大動物可以繁殖和成長的環(huán)境，陸上的動物，大象或犀牛之類。跟它們比較起來，簡直渺小得很。

The liquid masses support the largest known species of mammals and perhaps concealmollusks of incomparable size or crustaceans too frightful to contemplate, such as 100-meter lobsters or crabs weighing 200 metric tons!

一片汪洋大海里：既然有我們所知道的最巨大的哺乳類動物，說不定也有碩大無比的軟體動物和看起來叫人害怕的甲殼動物，如一百米長的大蝦，或二百噸重的螃蟹!

Why not? Formerly, in prehistoric days, land animals were built on a gigantic scale.

為什么不能有呢?從前，跟地質(zhì)學(xué)紀(jì)年同時代的陸上動物，四足獸，四手獸，爬蟲類，鳥類，都是按照巨大的模型創(chuàng)造的。

Our Creator cast them using a colossal mold that time has gradually made smaller.

造物者甩高大的模型把它們造出來，經(jīng)過漫長的歲月，這模型漸漸縮小了。

With its untold depths, couldn't the sea keep alive such huge specimens of life from another age, this sea that never changes while the land masses undergo almost continuousalteration?

在深不可測的海洋底下，為什么不能保存從前另一時代的巨大生物的品種呢?

Couldn't the heart of the ocean hide the last-remaining varieties of these titanic species, for whom years are centuries and centuries millennia?

海洋內(nèi)部，為什么不能藏有那些巨大生物的最后變種，以一世紀(jì)為一年，以一千年為一世紀(jì)的那些巨大品種呢?