英語(yǔ)聽書《白鯨記》第869期

Ere entering upon the subject of Fossil Whales, I present my credentials as a geologist, by stating that in my miscellaneous time I have been a stone-mason, and also a great digger of ditches, canals and wells, wine-vaults, cellars, and cisterns of all sorts. Likewise, by way of preliminary, I desire to remind the reader, that while in the earlier geological strata there are found the fossils of monsters now almost completely extinct; the subsequent relics discovered in what are called the Tertiary formations seem the connecting, or at any rate intercepted links, between the antichronical creatures, and those whose remote posterity are said to have entered the Ark; all the Fossil Whales hitherto discovered belong to the Tertiary period, which is the last preceding the superficial formations. And though none of them precisely answer to any known species of the present time, they are yet sufficiently akin to them in general respects, to justify their taking ranks as Cetacean fossils.

在著手處理化石鯨這題目之前，我得呈繳我的地質(zhì)學(xué)家的證狀，以證明我在各種時(shí)期中，曾經(jīng)做過(guò)石匠，也做過(guò)壕溝、運(yùn)河、水井、酒窖、地窖，以及各種各樣水槽的挖掘巨匠（據(jù)百周年紀(jì)念版注：作者曾于一八三九年四月間得他舅父之助，在伊利運(yùn)河管理部門做過(guò)一個(gè)時(shí)期的工作。）。而且，我還要開門見山地提請(qǐng)讀者注意，在早期的地質(zhì)層中，雖然曾經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)過(guò)巨獸的化石，可是現(xiàn)在都簡(jiǎn)直完全絕跡了。后來(lái)在我們所稱為第三地層中所發(fā)現(xiàn)的遺物，似乎就是介于反年紀(jì)的生物間的一種聯(lián)結(jié)物（總之，或者是一種阻隔物），而且那些屬于這一類的后代，據(jù)說(shuō)早就跑進(jìn)了方舟。迄今所發(fā)現(xiàn)的一切屬于第三紀(jì)的化石鯨，都是表層形成前的最后一批。雖然，在這些化石鯨中，沒(méi)有一條跟現(xiàn)代所看到的哪一類鯨很相符合，然而，一般說(shuō)來(lái)，這些化石鯨卻還跟現(xiàn)代鯨類極相類似，且足以證明它們是屬于同類。

Detached broken fossils of pre-adamite whales, fragments of their bones and skeletons, have within thirty years past, at various intervals, been found at the base of the Alps, in Lombardy, in France, in England, in Scotland, and in the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

亞當(dāng)以前的大鯨的斷塊化石，它們的骨頭和骷髏斷片，在過(guò)去三十年間，都曾陸續(xù)在下列各地方找到：阿爾卑斯山腳，倫巴底，法國(guó)，英國(guó)，蘇格蘭，和美國(guó)的路易斯安那州，密西西比州，亞拉巴馬州。

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