海底兩萬里 第316期 第23章 珊瑚王國(15)

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Just then Captain Nemo and his chief officer appeared.

就在這時船長和他的人突然出現(xiàn)了。

The captain glanced at the chart. Then, turning to me:

船長在地圖上看了一下，然后回過來對我說：

The island of Ceylon, he said, is famous for its pearl fisheries. Would you be interested, Professor Aronnax, in visiting one of those fisheries?

錫蘭島：是以采珍珠聞名的地方。柯龍納斯先生，您高興去看采珠場嗎？

Certainly, captain.

船長，當(dāng)然高興。

Fine. It's easily done. Only, when we see the fisheries, we'll see no fishermen. The annual harvest hasn't yet begun. No matter.

好，這是容易的事。不過，我們僅能看到采珠場，卻看不見采珠人。每年定期的采珠現(xiàn)在還沒有開始。

I'll give orders to make for the Gulf of Mannar, and we'll arrive there late tonight.

但這沒關(guān)系。我吩咐船駛到馬納爾灣，夜間我們就可以到達(dá)。

The captain said a few words to his chief officer who went out immediately.

船長對船副說了幾句話，船副立即出去。

Soon the Nautilus reentered its liquid element, and the pressure gauge indicated that it was staying at a depth of thirty feet.

不久諾第留斯號潛入水中，壓力表指出它是在水深三十英尺的地方。

With the chart under my eyes, I looked for the Gulf of Mannar. I found it by the 9th parallel off the northwestern shores of Ceylon.

面前擺著地圖，我找馬納爾灣。我在錫蘭島的西北海岸，緯度9度上找到了。

It was formed by the long curve of little Mannar Island. To reach it we had to go all the way up Ceylon's west coast.

這海灣由馬納爾小島的延長海岸線所形成。要到這灣，必須上溯錫蘭島整個西部海岸。

Professor, Captain Nemo then told me, there are pearl fisheries in the Bay of Bengal, the seas of the East Indies, the seas of China and Japan,

教授，尼摩船長這時說話了，在孟加拉灣，在印度海，在中國海和日本海，

plus those seas south of the United States, the Gulf of Panama and the Gulf of California; but it's off Ceylon that such fishing reaps its richest rewards.

在美洲南部的海，在巴拿馬灣，在加利福尼亞灣，都有人采珍珠，但采珠成績最優(yōu)良的地方是在錫蘭島。

No doubt we'll be arriving a little early.

我們來這里，時候是早了一些。

Fishermen gather in the Gulf of Mannar only during the month of March, and for thirty days some 300 boats concentrate on the lucrative harvest of these treasures from the sea.

每年三月采珠人才齊集在馬納爾灣，為期整整有三十天，他們的三百只船一齊做這種采取海中珠寶的有利事業(yè)。

Each boat is manned by ten oarsmen and ten fishermen.

每只船有十個劃船手和十個采珠人。

The latter pide into two groups, pe in rotation,

采珠人分做兩組，彼此輪流潛入水中，

and descend to a depth of twelve meters with the help of a heavy stone clutched between their feet and attached by a rope to their boat.

他們是用兩只腳夾著一塊很重的石頭，再用一根長繩把他系在船上，他們下至十二米深的地方采珠。